Galle: Steve Smith has endorsed Usman Khawaja to open for Australia in the Ashes and tipped Travis Head to win the Allan Border Medal on Monday night after what he called a “near flawless” innings thumping of Sri Lanka.
As the home side’s coach Sanath Jayasuriya decried his batters’ poor shot selection and argued that the touring spinners had adapted better to the slow conditions than his own, Smith declared that 38-year-old Khawaja was up to the task of leading the line against England next summer.
Australia’s Travis Head, right, bumps fists with Usman Khawaja after hitting a four.Credit: AP
The World Test Championship final against South Africa and a tour of the West Indies are both looming before that battle, but Smith spoke knowledgeably of how a slim series against Jasprit Bumrah with the new ball need not be seen as a permanent dimming of Khawaja’s batting ability.
“He’s still batting exceptionally well and age is only a number,” acting skipper Smith said. “He’s still doing everything right, he’s catching well in the slips, he’s a senior figure. He’s batting really well. I’m not a selector, but I’m sure as long as he wants to play then I’m happy with him there for sure.
“Batting at the top of the order at the moment, particularly in Australia, is as hard as I’ve seen in my career. The amount of seam movement, and you throw into that he’s facing Jasprit Bumrah throughout the summer with a brand new ball, fresh every time. There’s probably not a much bigger threat in world cricket at the moment or almost ever.
“He’s batting nicely, it’s just tough at the moment. Fortunately here the last few times he’s played on the subcontinent, he’s come with such a clear method, a really effective method and stuck to it for long periods. He’s tough to set a field to when he’s able to manipulate the field.”
Smith described Head as having had “a pretty good year in all formats” and so endorsed him to win an award that Smith has taken home on four occasions.
Head’s barnstorming 57 from 40 balls on the first morning helped set things up for Australia, and Smith said the way the batters had not let Sri Lanka’s spinners settle went hand in hand with the way Matt Kuhnemann and Nathan Lyon tried to bowl.
“We put them under pressure, particularly the guys playing the sweep shot, that was tough to defend,” he said. “Uzzy I reckon played almost 25 per cent of his balls with a sweep or reverse sweep. It was difficult for them to set fields to. [Josh] Inglis was similar, [Alex] Carey was similar, and then a couple of us went down the straighter plane and did that well as well.
“But the key message to the spinners is to just bowl the ball in a good area for as long as you can, and there was enough in the surface both skid wise and spin wise, the inconsistency. So hit a good length, try to challenge their defence.
Australia celebrate their innings victory in Galle.Credit: Getty Images
“It’s a lot of fun when you’ve got 650 on the board. You can set some funk fields, try to force batter error as much as possible, and not be worried about getting hit for any boundaries and things like that.”
For Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s heaviest Test match defeat of all time was a bitter reverse after a WTC cycle in which his side had contended for the final. While it remains to be seen what surface is prepared for the second Test from Thursday, Jayasuriya did not blame the pitch for his side’s struggles.
“The wicket was really good. I didn’t see a wicket like this for a long time. Even the last pair the way they batted, you’d have seen Vandersay was really good and I think you can’t complain about the wicket,” he said. “The shot selections were not the best, and we have experienced players, so they’ll have to adjust themselves.
“We’re playing against the number one team in the world, and we know they’re tough. But we’re playing here in Sri Lanka in our conditions, and we know how to play in our conditions, so our guys should know how to play and how to adjust themselves in different situations.”
Jayasuriya credited Lyon and Kuhnemann with finding the right pace to bowl on the surface to create plenty of turn and bounce, and duly cause problems for the home side’s batters.
“They were bowling faster than us,” he said. “We were thinking that our pace was the best, that’s what we had been doing. But the wicket was on the slower side. We were trying to bowl a little bit more faster than what we do normally here, but still the first day’s wicket is not much happening.
“After relaying this wicket, it takes more time now, it’s on the slower side now. So it’ll take time. After the third day you’ll see the ball started to play like a normal Galle wicket. What they did was they bowled a little faster than us. We used to bowl a certain pace here, but it didn’t work. We need to discuss all those things.”
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