Galle: Usman Khawaja made some past selectors look silly by soaring to his highest score and Josh Inglis thoroughly vindicated the current panel with an impish debut century as Australia put Sri Lanka in a deep hole after two days of the first Test.
Batting with great serenity but plenty of run-scoring tempo, Khawaja (232) was the bulwark around which Steve Smith (141) and then Inglis (102) bustled to big scores of their own. Australia’s 6-654 declared was their highest ever on the subcontinent and their biggest in Tests since January 2012.
Usman Khawaja and Josh Inglis both had big days in Galle.Credit: AP
Matt Kuhnemann (1-26) then struck in his first over after beating a dislocated thumb to play, pinning Oshada Fernando lbw on the back foot. Mitchell Starc (1-10) had Dimuth Karunaratne taken by a juggling substitute Nathan McSweeney in the gully.
Angelo Mathews survived a tough chance for McSweeney off Starc and then a Nathan Lyon (1-7) delivery that rolled off his body onto the stumps and did not dislodge the bails, but could not escape a glove that Travis Head dived to snaffle at short leg. Sri Lanka limped to 3-44 at the close.
The pitch is expected to deteriorate over coming days, as it did last year when the home side passed 600 against New Zealand and won by an innings.
Unsurprisingly given the heat, Khawaja was off at the start of Sri Lanka’s innings with cramp. Sam Konstas, meanwhile, spent the day at the team hotel after succumbing to illness. He is expected to be back at the ground on day three.
Khawaja was dropped on three consecutive tours of south Asia because the Australian team hierarchy at the time thought he could not handle spinning conditions.
That notion came to look increasingly ridiculous in Galle on Thursday, as Khawaja sculpted his first double century, and the highest ever score for Australia against Sri Lanka. The innings will go a long way towards fulfilling 38-year-old Khawaja’s goal of playing in the Ashes summer.
Inglis’ 90-ball hundred was the first by an Australian on debut since Adam Voges in Dominica a decade ago. Coincidentally each of the national side’s four most recent first Test centurions – Inglis, Voges, Shaun Marsh and Marcus North – all hail from Western Australia. Inglis played at a cracking pace against tiring bowlers; just the sort of high-tempo display that teammates expected from him.
Upon reaching 200, Khawaja removed his helmet and beamed in the Galle sunshine, falling to his knees to bow his head in prayerful thanks for an innings that assumed ever more gargantuan dimensions with every hour.
Only Mark Taylor’s famous 334 in Pakistan in 1998 and Greg Chappell’s 235 in Faisalabad in 1980 were ahead of Khawaja’s innings among high scores by Australians in the region. On the way he had passed the tallies of Jason Gillespie (201 in Chittagong in 2006), Matthew Hayden (201 in Chennai in 2001) and Dean Jones (2010 in Chennai in 1986).
Australia’s Travis Head celebrates after taking a catch to dismiss Sri Lanka’s Angelo Mathews during day two.Credit: AP
What’s more, Khawaja’s performance added further heft to what is now the most handsome record for any Australian player ever in south Asia. Only Matthew Hayden, Allan Border, Smith and Ricky Ponting have more runs in the region than Khawaja’s 1544, and none made them at anything like Khawaja’s average of 61.76 – only Mike Hussey (1198 runs at 63.05) has come close.
Over the years, Khawaja has added numerous strings to his method in these parts. He uses his feet more often than he once did, he sweeps and reverses with assurance, and uses the full width of the crease to get back and play the ball after it spins, or stretches well forward to cover it before any deviation.
In fact, Khawaja’s most perilous moments on day two tended to be when he meandered between the wickets – coming close to being run out more than once as the hosts tried everything to end his innings.
“It’s a contrast of two halves of my career on the subcontinent pre-Dubai [in 2018] and post-Dubai,” Khawaja said after day one. “There’s a lot going on, and that’s what I love about the subcontinent, there’s always a game of chess and trying to figure out how to score runs.”
Smith and Khawaja resumed with plenty of intent to get the Australians into a position where they may only need to bat once in this game, and although Sri Lanka’s captain Dhananjaya de Silva set some better in-out fields for Prabath Jaysuriya in particular, the runs kept coming at a fair clip.
Advancing numerous times to find the gap between mid off and midwicket, Smith reached his highest score in Tests since 2022 before he was out lbw to a straighter delivery from the wrist spinner Jeffery Vandersay after the previous ball had turned sharply away from him.
That wicket though served mainly to bring Inglis into the game, for a contribution that backed up the current panel’s views on why he would be a dangerous proposition on a turning pitch.
Those scoring options were seen from Inglis’ first ball, which he flipped powerfully through midwicket to the boundary, and there were sweeps aplenty alongside numerous powerful strikes down the ground and a hook shot when Sri Lanka’s sole paceman Asitha Fernando was tried.
Inglis overturned an lbw verdict on 58 when he appeared to miss a reverse sweep and was struck in front by Nishan Peiris’ off spin. But a review revealed an underneath edge, and the free scoring continued.
Khawaja had batted for nearly nine hours when he edged Jayasuriya behind, Kusal Mendis completing a sharp catch behind the stumps. Inglis sailed on, and punched three runs through cover to reach three figures in the company of his fellow wicketkeeper Carey.
