Regretful Voges looking to reverse SL result

Adam Voges concedes there are things he'd do differently following a forgettable Test tour of Sri Lanka but the Australia batsman is intent on bouncing back with big runs against South Africa and Pakistan this summer.

Voges, who began the tour with a Test average of 95.50 following a remarkable run in his first 15 matches dating back to June last year, made 47 in the series opener in Pallekele and looked set to be one of Australia's more reliable performers on the turning tracks and against Sri Lanka's impressive spin brigade.

However, that 47 was his high watermark for the tour, with his next five innings reading – 12, 8, 28, 22, 1 – for 118 runs at 19.66 across the three Tests.

"I thought my preparation going into the series was good, my training was good, and my plans were sound," Voges told cricket.com.au's The Unplayable Podcast.

"So I had plenty of confidence going into that first Test, and I'll be the first to admit that I struggled throughout the series and couldn't find a way in some tough conditions at times to get through them and get some big scores that I was hoping for.

"That's international cricket.

"It's tough work and it's high-pressure situations.

"You do your best to replicate it at training, but you never have two blokes standing right under your nose, on the wicket almost, in the nets, and the crowd going crazy.

"That's something you have to deal with to the best of your ability and something I obviously didn't do as well as I'd have liked on the tour."

Voges was far from alone in his struggles with the bat, with Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja dropped after two Tests and only Steve Smith managing more than 200 runs for the series as Australia's best-laid plans against spin fell horribly short.

The right-hander changed tack in the third Test, employing a reverse sweep – a shot he usually reserves for his time with the Perth Scorchers in the KFC Big Bash – as part of what he explained was a team-wide strategy to avoid letting the Sri Lankan spinners dictate terms, which by that point they had done for the majority of the series.

Voges also added that his orthodox sweep shot was a weapon he didn't have enough confidence in to utilise regularly – a fact he'd change if he was to have his time over.

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"(There) was sort of a directive (from) the coach and the captain. (They) said in that game in Galle to try and be a bit more proactive in the way we went about it," he explained.

"It was spinning quite big by that stage, in the fourth innings of the game, and they wanted us to be proactive, and the reverse sweep was my version of that.

"It's something I have played a little bit and do practice in the nets – it wasn't a case of just going out there, trying my luck and hoping for the best. I know it doesn't look great when you get out in that manner but that was my version of being proactive.

"My sweep shot was something I didn't use enough, or didn't trust enough, in those conditions.

"Going into the series it was something I did work a fair bit on, but in the pressure situations, in the heat of being out in the middle, I probably didn't go to it enough to try and rotate strike.

"Particularly in the fourth innings of games where the ball was turning considerably, and sitting there and defending on the crease was probably just buying time.

"If I had my time again I'd certainly use that, and whether it worked or would have become more effective, it's something that I would have used more of."

The 36-year-old acknowledged the team's performance was particularly disappointing but feels something can be salvaged from the tour if the experiences are utilised for Australia's Test series in India next February-March. 

"I've been home for nearly a week now so I've had a good chance to have a think about what went wrong, what I could have done better and what I learnt out of the tour," he said.

"There's been some really good lessons learned from it. You often learn the most when you fail. There were some high expectations going into this tour and unfortunately we got outplayed.

"As long as we learn from what's happened and we can take that forward for the next time we're in the subcontinent, then it certainly hasn't been a wasted trip, but we'll certainly need to play better than we have done."

While originally scheduled to head back to Middlesex in the UK County Championship, Voges is under orders from Cricket Australia to recover from a hamstring injury and generally recuperate at his home in Perth for the coming weeks.

And while he admits that the issue of retirement will forever be a nagging one for a player in the twilight of his career, it's not where his focus lies.

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"Being 36 years of age, I know I have to keep scoring runs consistently and keep making every post a winner," he said.

"I've reflected on that, and there's no doubt (Sri Lanka) wasn't my best period, but with that behind me now I certainly look forward to what's coming up during the summer.

"It's a chance for me to get the hamstring right and just freshen up for what will hopefully be a really big summer of cricket.

"But it will be about how well I perform.

"I'm looking forward to the Matador Cup with Western Australia, the first game of Shield cricket, and we can go from there.

"I'll be doing everything I possibly can on the training track between now and then to make sure that physically, mentally and technically I'm in the best place I can be to go out and perform."

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