Mitchell Starc to return to lead a Test pace attack likely to feature Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird and Scott Boland in Sri Lanka
Australia set to look to seam for success
While spin has long been seen as the key to success in Sri Lanka, Australia’s hopes of reversing their recent Test match results in sub-continental conditions will hang heavily upon the performances of their front-line seam attack.
The 15-man squad for the upcoming three-Test Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka to be announced tomorrow will be headlined by the return of Mitchell Starc to lead the pace bowling attack after more than six months on the sidelines due to a foot fracture and subsequent ankle surgery.
But given the fallibility that Sri Lanka’s top-order displayed against the swinging ball in alien conditions at Headingley in the one-sided opening Test against England, the make-up of Australia’s seam attack will have occupied much of the national selection panel’s discussion when they convened in Brisbane last week.
The pitches and the weather that the world’s top-ranked Test team will face for their matches at Kandy, Galle and Colombo from July 26 will be as far removed from Leeds as five-day cricket is from the 20-over game that has been most Australia players’ sole competitive outlet for three months.
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However, recent history suggests it is pace bowlers with the ability to move the ball off the seam on pitches – that, unlike those in India, traditionally carry a touch more grass and offer some heart to the quicks – who perform best against local batters who have cut their teeth on a steady diet of spin.
The most successful visiting Test bowlers on Sri Lanka pitches (in terms of strike rate) over the past decade have been New Zealand pace pair Tim Southee and Trent Boult, South Africa’s Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and Australia’s Ryan Harris, along with India off-spinner Ravi Ashwin.
Harris was working with Starc and his Test new-ball partner Josh Hazlewood at the Bupa National Cricket Centre last week, where most other members of the Australia squad for the upcoming ODI tri-series against South Africa and the West Indies in the Caribbean have been preparing.
As well as Starc and Hazlewood, the Sri Lanka touring party is expected to include Tasmania seamer Jackson Bird (who took seven wickets in his return to Test cricket in New Zealand last February) and Scott Boland who is part of West Indies ODI squad and was called up as cover for last year’s Boxing Day Test at the MCG.
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Boland’s fellow Victorian quicks Peter Siddle and James Pattinson, who were both members of the NZ campaign in which Australia secured the number one Test ranking, finished that tour with ankle and shin problems respectively while Pat Cummins continues his recovery from a back injury.
The fact that reverse swing is likely to play more of a role in Sri Lanka than conventional new ball movement means South Australia’s Chadd Sayers, who also went to NZ but did not play a Test, is expected to surrender his place to a second specialist spinner, NSW left-armer Steve O’Keefe.
O’Keefe is likely to share much of the bowling burden with the team’s premier spinner Nathan Lyon, who is five wickets shy of becoming the first Australia off-spinner to claim 200 Test scalps.
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"I dare say there’ll be a second spinner in the (Sri Lanka Test) squad, with the likelihood of wickets that will spin and reverse swing,” Smith told reporters in Brisbane today prior to his ODI touring party’s departure for the Caribbean later in the week.
"So I think it'll be an exciting squad."
But the likelihood of Australia playing two specialist spinners means an allrounder becomes crucial for team balance as a third seam bowling option, which means Mitchell Marsh is tipped to be preferred in that role to spin-bowling allrounder Glenn Maxwell.
If, in keeping with recent precedent for sub-continental tours, the selectors deem a back-up allrounder is necessary then they might be tempted to recall Moises Henriques, who played all of his three Tests to date in India in 2013.
But it would represent a leap of faith given that Henriques has not played a first-class match since last November after suffering a calf tear during the KFC Big Bash League.
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Leg spinner Adam Zampa, who has enhanced his ever-growing reputation with recent performances in the Indian Premier League, has also pushed his claims to add the option of leg spin to the bowling attack.
But Zampa’s red-ball returns have not been as solid as his limited-overs efforts, partly because he has played just one first-class match this year.
And he was not named in the 24-man Australia A squad for a series of matches to be played in Brisbane, McKay and Townsville in August and September.
Zampa’s South Australia skipper Travis Head has also pushed his claim for a berth in the Test squad after being named Sheffield Shield Player of the Year last summer and also could provide a useful third spin-bowling alternative with his occasional off-breaks.
However, captain Steve Smith is more likely to employ his own wrist spin or the under-rated left-arm orthodox of veteran Adam Voges if his front-line bowlers are unable to make head way against a Sri Lanka batting line-up that will present a far more daunting challenge than they did in Leeds last weekend.
That means the additional places in the 15-man squad that departs for Sri Lanka in early July could go to Shaun Marsh, who returned early from the IPL due to a back injury and was not selected for the Caribbean tri-series due to the impending arrival of his first child, and his Western Australia teammate Cameron Bancroft.
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Not only was Bancroft WA’s leading runs scorer (and fourth-highest overall) in the recent Shield season with three centuries from nine matches as an opener, he has also represented Australia in a T20 International against India earlier this year as a stand-in wicketkeeper.
Which means he could also double as a reserve gloveman should incumbent Test ‘keeper Peter Nevill should he be injured immediately prior to a Test.
With Shaun Marsh and Bancroft in the touring party, the selectors have an auxiliary option for any specialist batting berth that needs to be filled.
The top of Australia’s batting order – David Warner and his new opening partner Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Smith and Voges – will remain unchanged from the team that won 2-0 in NZ now that Smith has recovered from a wrist injury that prematurely ended his IPL campaign.
And Voges has returned to playing after being concussed in a freak fielding mishap during a recent appearance for English county Middlesex.
"The batters probably pick themselves. They've been pretty consistent over the last little while and have been scoring big runs. So I dare say they'll pick themselves," Smith said.
Australia has lost just one of its previous six Test tours to Sri Lanka (a 1-0 defeat in 1999) but has only won a solitary Test – at Galle in 2011 when Lyon made his debut – of the past 15 it has played in Asia (including the UAE) over the past decade.
Possible squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (v-c), Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Adam Voges, Shaun Marsh, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill, Cameron Bancroft, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Jackson Bird, Scott Boland, Nathan Lyon Steve O’Keefe.