‘Got to be better at decision-making’ – Lehmann

Australia’s batsmen were guilty of poor decisions to squander their first innings advantage and begin the slide to defeat against Sri Lanka at Pallekele, while the left-arm spinner Jon Holland is all but assured of a Test debut in Galle. The coach Darren Lehmann offered these conclusions as he set about working with the captain Steven Smith to keep the tourists in the series and atop the world rankings.

Lehmann has always emphasised the need for big first-innings runs, and noted that the bowlers claimed 20 wickets so could be seen to have done something like their best job in the first Test. He was far more critical of his batsmen, who fell in a rush on the second morning and left Australia with a first-innings lead of only 86 – not enough to safeguard against a brilliant innings by Kusal Mendis and exposure to Rangana Herath. Smith’s second innings response, to play within his limitations and look for ones and twos, was closer to what Lehmann wanted.

“They’ve got to be better at decision-making. The disappointing thing was we gave up a big lead,” Lehmann said of his batsmen. “We should’ve made more runs in the first innings. We let them off the hook there. The positive was we got 20 wickets again. If we keep getting 20 wickets, it gives you a good chance that if your batters are making runs to win games of cricket.

“That was the pleasing thing for us, especially when we had a bowler down in the second innings. And there’s enough upside there that we know we’re on the right path with the type of team we want to play. It gets down to just the execution against their spinners really. We’ve been very …

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