We’ve opened up Sri Lanka’s scars – Hazlewood

Josh Hazlewood believes Australia have already opened up mental scars for Sri Lanka’s unsteady batting line-up that may smooth a path for the tourists on less helpful pitches later in the series.

Hazlewood, who took 3 for 21 to play a major role in rounding up the hosts for 117 – Sri Lanka’s second-lowest total against Australia at home – in Pallekele, took advantage of some swing and seam with the new ball that he may not find in Galle or Colombo. However, the memories of this day, when numerous Sri Lankan batsmen looked out of their depth against Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and the spin twins of Steve O’Keefe and Nathan Lyon, may now play in favour of Steven Smith’s team.

“Anything you can get on the opposition is crucial,” Hazlewood, whose three wickets included that of Dinesh Chandimal, said. “If you can get it straight up on the first morning of a Test series, and get on top of a few of their top-order batters, it does open up some scars, hopefully, for the back end of the tour on some not-so-friendly wickets for us quicks.

“We don’t know too much about these guys, we haven’t played them a lot, especially our bowlers, so we’ve worked out a few little things here and there in that innings, and we’ll look to keep on top of them with those plans throughout the whole series.”

This was, arguably, a fortuitous toss for …

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