Malcolm Conn: Australia have a rare shot at history as race for Test places tightens

So how much should we celebrate Australia’s record-breaking first Test victory over Sri Lanka in Galle on Saturday?

Should we call out the full marching band for what stand-in skipper Steve Smith called a “near flawless” innings and 242-run victory, Australia’s largest on the sub-continent and Sri Lanka’s worst in history?

Or should we keep it to whistles and streamers until after the second Test, also in Galle, which begins on Thursday?

There is certainly no shortage of achievements to celebrate: Usman’s Khawaja’s first double century in a roller-coaster 14-year career, Steve Smith’s third hundred in four Tests after a lean run, Josh Inglis making a debut century from 90 balls, and Matt Kuhnemann’s nine wickets making him Nathan Lyon’s understudy.

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But the second Test is when it gets hard. During a history of 34 previous tours to the sub-continent across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, Australia have won more than a single Test in a series just seven times.

And it has become harder. Australia last bettered one Test victory in a series during 2006, winning 2-0 on their first Test tour of Bangladesh. In Sri Lanka and India it has been 20 years and in Pakistan they achieved it once, in 1959.

So winning the second Test to emphatically claim the series would be a significant slice of history in a region of the world where Australia has enjoyed little success.

To whitewash the series, albeit just two Tests, would be Australia’s best achievement in Sri Lanka since Ricky Ponting’s team came from behind in each first innings to win 3-0 in 2004, when Shane Warne returned from his drugs ban to claim his 500th wicket.

Australia had the cricketing gods heavily on side during the first Test. First of all Smith won the toss and batted on a flat, slow pitch which was always going to scuff up and turn as the match went on.

Then Sri Lanka extended Christmas goodwill for a month, dropping Khawaja on 19 and Smith on one amongst a number of chances that went down.

And the rain which can be so prominent in Galle this time of year arrived for just long enough to ensure the Australian bowlers had a decent break, which helped with the follow-on.

Depending on how those gods are feeling later this week, the toss, fielding and the forecast will play a major part in whether Australia can carve a significant slice of history.

Matt Kuhnemann celebrates after taking the wicket of Jeffrey Vandersay. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

But for a contest to take place Sri Lanka must find something. For all those supporting a two division Test regime, Sri Lanka looked for all the world like a second division side.

Except that they were in the running for the World Test Championship final not so long ago and currently sit sixth on the World Test Champion table, which would make them part of a proposed division one.

Sri Lanka’s batsmen can start by putting away their Twenty20 shots and taking a leaf out of Khawaja’s book. He batted for 352 balls, which is 58.4 overs, longer than either of Sri Lanka’s innings.

The joy of such a complete victory can momentarily distract from the next big question, how will the selectors fit Cameron Green back in the Test side when they can’t keep exciting tyro Sam Konstas in the team?

It has taken just three Tests to wipe away the early summer lament that there was no fresh talent coming through to replenish a team of 30-somethings.

If Nathan McSweeney, the timid debutant opener against India, was the best we could do then the cupboard did indeed seem bare.

But from the time rambunctious teenager Konstas replaced McSweeney for the fourth Test in Melbourne, the mood and momentum changed as he ramped Jasprit Bumrah to frustration.

Then Beau Webster arrived in Sydney, replacing a broken Mitch Marsh, and was near-faultless with bat and ball, winning player of the match and taking Australia to a Test and series victory which regained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Matthew Kuhnemann celebrates after taking the wicket of Dhananjaya de Silva (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)

Now Josh Inglis has stepped up with a 90-ball century in the middle order as Travis Head moved up to open, pushing wonderboy Konstas out of the side after two Tests.

And it’s not as though 38-year-old Usman Khawaja is going anywhere after his double hundred.

So when Green is fully mended from his back operation for next season’s Ashes, where does the pivotal all-rounder fit in? He could play as a specialist batter before the Ashes – the five intervening Tests at Galle, the World Test Championship against South Africa at Lord’s, and a three-match tour of the West Indies, will offer plenty of clues as to what will be the best line-up to defend the urn.

But this sudden emergence of Test quality players, now they’ve been given the chance at the top level, should not change the fact that Green ranks as an automatic inclusion.

The competition for Test places has suddenly become intense, and Marnus Labuschagne for one will be hoping for a century or two in the coming months after 26 innings without a hundred.

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