Quantcast

Aussies sweat on Voges for 'spinners' paradise'

Hamstring complaint for middle-order batsman forces Australia to delay naming XI as ruthless Sri Lanka target a rare series sweep

Australia are sweating on the fitness of middle-order batsman Adam Voges as they aim to avoid a series sweep in the third and final Test starting at the SSC Ground in Colombo tomorrow.

Speaking at his pre-Test media conference today, captain Steve Smith said an XI wouldn't be confirmed until the toss of the coin in the morning.


"We're still waiting on Adam Voges," Smith said.

"He's had a few hamstring issues from the last game. He's going to train again today and we'll see how we go."

Voges completed Thursday's main training session seemingly without trouble in the scorching Sri Lankan heat.

Still plenty for us to play for: Smith

Shaun Marsh is the only specialist batsman on standby, with coach Darren Lehmann already ruling out a Test debut for young-gun Travis Head who joined up with the squad ahead of the one-day international series.

Quick Single: Dizzy says Head fit for Baggy Green

Meanwhile, a ruthless Sri Lanka team is set to make one change for the series finale.

Suranga Lakmal returns to the side after overcoming an ankle complaint that ruled him out of the opening two Tests.

After bowling just two overs on debut in Galle – for the return of one wicket – left-arm paceman Vishwa Fernando will make way for the fellow seamer.

While the home side's openers have struggled to hold off Australia's new-ball duo of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, the Sri Lankan selectors are backing the incumbent duo.

"The selectors, the coach and everyone is of the view that we should go with the same batting order and not chop and change," captain Angelo Mathews said today.

"Now that we've won the series we'll try to give that extra opportunity who we think will deliver at some stage.

"Everyone tends to have that bad rough patch, but hopefully they can come out and deliver for us."

We're all geared up for 3-0: Mathews

Mathews recognises the enormous opportunity to claim a rare series sweep against the No.1-ranked Australians, with the hosts looking to avoid any signs of complacency.

"We've trained harder than what we did in the last two weeks, because we just want to win it three-nil," Mathews said.

"Everyone is all geared up and we haven't taken the foot off the gas.

"They've trained extremely hard in the last few days and hopefully we can go on and beat the Aussies again."

Quick Single: Shed the shackles and get busy: Smith

As they look to restore some semblance of pride from another failed trip to the subcontinent, Smith and his men will again be confronted by Sri Lanka's spin quartet on a raging turner.

In a worrying sign for the tourists, Sri Lanka's spin spearhead Rangana Herath has claimed 26 wickets in the last three outings at the venue to host the final Test encounter of the tour.

Quick Single: Dry Colombo to offer little respite

Smith's counterpart is looking forward to what he describes as a "spinners' paradise".

"It's going to be a turner once again," Mathews said.

"SSC has traditionally been a very good batting-friendly wicket, but the last few games against South Africa and Pakistan did take a lot of turn.

"We hope that it will take a bit of turn from day one and it's going to be a spinner's paradise once again."