Now that the dust, and dirt, has settled on the crumbling Galle wicket, Australia have plenty of questions on the horizon as far as the 11 players who will line up for the World Test Championship final against South Africa in June.
The selectors’ sudden penchant for picking debutants – five in the past seven Tests – has led to a logjam in the race for the six batting spots in particular for the Lord’s assignment against the Proteas.
Big question No.1 is whether they bring Sam Konstas back from the Sheffield Shield ranks for the one-off clash for the world title with Travis Head all but certain to return to his normal middle-order spot.
No.2 is making a decision on whether they back Marnus Labuschagne after it appeared he was going to get the chop a day out from the second Test in Sri Lanka before Todd Murphy was ultimately the odd one out as Australia fielded a team with only three frontline bowlers.
The Aussies have Cameron Green on the comeback trail from back surgery and he is looking to play a short-term stint in county cricket to give himself the best possible chance of earning a start in the XI for the WTC decider.
Do the Aussies proceed with their plan from the start of the summer to make Green a top-order batter a la Shane Watson?
That could be bad news for Konstas if they think Green can handle being an opener particularly while he is playing as a specialist batter until his back has fully healed from his surgery in October.
But taking a punt on a middle-order specialist at opener is fraught with danger, as the Aussies found out when you pick an all-time great, like Steve Smith, or an in-form newbie in Nathan McSweeney.
The only three certainties in the Australian batting order are Smith, Usman Khawaja and Travis Head with Labuschagne, Green, Konstas and Beau Webster the likely candidates for the final three spots.
Josh Inglis filled his role in Sri Lanka in the middle order with a century on debut before missing out in the second Test to do more than enough to show that he can play as a specialist batter at Test level.
But he’s likely to be squeezed out for Lord’s.
The Australian team pose after they defeated Sri Lanka. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
If the Aussies are picking the six best batters, Green could knock Webster out of the equation but if they think they need a fifth bowler against the Proteas then the 31-year-old Tasmanian should get the No.6 spot.
In the bowling, Matt Kuhnemann is little chance of playing in England but he doesn’t have to put his baggy green cap in mothballs because there’s a fair chance he will get a run on the subsequent Caribbean tour.
Cooper Connolly will be sent back to the Sheffield Shield ranks with Western Australia to get much more experience at first-class level before he will be reconsidered again for the Test side.
With Pat Cummins and Josh Hazelwood to return, Australia will be at full strength for their world title defence and should be red-hot favourites to account for the South Africans.
Connolly punt didn’t work but no harm done
Connolly’s selection, in a vacuum, was not necessarily a bad move but it would have been wiser to play Murphy.
The Australian selectors have cottoned on to the fact that they have an ageing team and they need to get fresh blood into the system.
Connolly’s left-arm spinners are clearly not effective enough to cause international batters any concerns and Smith was reluctant to bowl him, giving him just three overs in the first innings and two in the second on a turning surface.
The fact that the captain didn’t have much faith in his bowling and that he batted at No.8 underlined why it was such a curious decision to pick him for that bowling all-rounder role.
Cooper Connolly. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
Australia loaded up their batting team despite coming off a 6-600 plus total in the first Test and coach Andrew McDonald admitted they erred in being too worried about a more hazardous pitch for the return bout when they loaded up their batting.
But the decision to play just three specialist bowlers hampered their chances of rolling the Sri Lankans in each innings.
On both occasions they could have knocked over the home side for less than 200 – they were 5-127 in the first innings before making 257 then 5-128 in the second before reaching 231 – but the workload on Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon seemed to take its toll.
In the end, all’s well that ends well because they still won comfortably by nine wickets.
Connolly may not see Test cricket again for another couple of years at least which could be a good thing because he is better off finding his feet at international level in the white-ball formats and building up a stronger resume at first-class level before being thrown to the wolves again.
Beau needs more of a turn
Judging by the way he caused the Sri Lankan tail no end of drama in the second innings, Webster should have been bowled more by Smith during the second Test and probably the first as well as a spinning option.
This may have been mentioned once or twice by the TV commentators but Webster is rather tall and the amount of bounce he was able to extract with his off-spinners caused the ball to leap up off the low, slow surface.
Beau Webster celebrates with teammates after taking the wicket of Ramesh Mendis. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
If nothing else he has ensured that as long as his batting form remains solid he will be an asset for Australia on future tours to nations with turning wickets such as the three-match tour of the West Indies later this year and the Borde-Gavaskar Trophy rematch in India in early 2027.
He has concentrated more on his medium pacers than his tweakers for Tassie in recent years but his Funky Miller-like ability to go from seamers to spinners could be a valuable asset for the Aussies, particularly once Green is back to bowling so he can provide the fourth seam bowler option.
Marnus surely on last chance
Labuschagne’s prolonged form slump is starting to resemble the saga that was David Warner’s final 18 months in the Australian Test team.
The selectors have shown enormous amounts of patience in the hope that he will eventually come good but the fact that he scored just 20 and 4 in his two completed innings in Sri Lanka shows there should be little hope for optimism.
He was, in the past tense, one of the best batters in the world from the 2019 Ashes through until the 2022-23 home summer.
However, his output has since stagnated due to a combination of a flawed technique outside off stump, bowlers working out ways to exploit his weaknesses and perhaps the disappearance of the large dose of fortune with missed catches that seem to follow him early in his career.
His recent record of just one ton in the past 51 Test innings while averaging 30.79 means the selectors have more than enough ammunition to fire him from the team.
Marnus Labuschagne in Galle. (Photo by Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images)
There is never a good time to drop a high-profile star particularly when you are heading into the WTC final.
Judging by their modus operandi the selectors will likely use that as one last excuse for the 30-year-old Queenslander to remain at first drop to face the hostile Proteas attack.
But if he again fails to fire with the bat they have a golden opportunity with three Tests in the West Indies to trial a new No.3 before the Ashes showdown with England at the end of the year.
That could be Green slotting straight in, moving Smith up a spot or a recent addition like Inglis or McSweeney.
The Aussies have ample options on the table and a mid-career jolt back to the Sheffield Shield ranks could be just what’s needed for Labuschagne to rediscover his peak form so he can not only get back into the Test team but revive the kind of batting which led to him scoring 10 tons in a 21-match purple patch to be a pillar of strength in the top order.
“It’s clear that we’ve got some players that have put their hand up, so there is a squeeze,” McDonald told reporters after the second Test when asked about the WTC final side.
“Whoever misses out will be very unlucky.
“England creates a different challenge and then off to West Indies, which can spin, it can also swing and seam. The beauty of it is we’ve got some time before we have to make some decisions. It’s great to have options”
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