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Selection rethink needed – Smith
- Updated: August 6, 2016
Australia’s captain Steven Smith has conceded a radical shift in Test selection may be required in order to change the national side’s increasingly grim record in Asia, after he presided over a series-ending thrashing at the hands of Sri Lanka in Galle. It was Australia’s eighth consecutive loss in the region, following series clean sweeps by India and Pakistan in 2013 and 2014.
The top six chosen for Pallekele and Galle was the same as that used through last summer in Australia and New Zealand, but Smith admitted it may now be time to think in terms of the players best-equipped to deal with spin bowling on helpful pitches, rather than the diet of pace on which most of his batting colleagues have been raised. Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja in particular have looked out of their depth despite strong returns last season, each innings looking more fraught than the last.
Touring players will have the option of returning to Galle for training on what should have been the fourth day of the Test. The centre pitch on which the batsmen were so confused has been left unwatered in order to be used for additional practice. However Smith agreed that the composition of the team needed to be examined in view of the results collected here.
“Yeah it certainly needs to be looked at,” Smith said following the 229-run defeat that handed Sri Lanka the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy for the first time since it was struck. “If there are guys that can play spin well in these conditions then it’s certainly got to be a chance. It’s been too long now – I think it’s been 15 or 16 [17] games since we’ve won a game in the subcontinent, so whatever we’re doing it’s not working. So yeah there might be a need for some changes.”
Australia have chosen batsmen for subcontinent conditions in the past, the current coach and selector Darren Lehmann among them. He made his debut in India in 1998 then later played a useful role in series wins in Pakistan and India, while often being left out at home …
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