Boof puts Burns, Khawaja on notice

Even though his team completed an emphatic first Test win and face searing heat for the start of their next match in Perth, coach Darren Lehmann is planning to work his players hard on the training track over coming days at the WACA Ground.

Lehmann identified shortcomings in the Australians’ bowling in the first Test at the Gabba which they completed yesterday with a 208-run victory with two sessions to spare.

The national coach also claimed that further work was needed to sharpen his team’s fielding, identifying recently recalled batsmen Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja as players who need to lift their intensity in the field to meet the expectations of a top-ranked Test side.

Burns came under scrutiny for his fielding in the difficult and disliked role at short leg which requires cat-like reflexes as well as an unflinching preparedness to cop blows on the body. 

WATCH: Burns puts down hot chance off Guptill

Given its lack of appeal, the bat-pad fielding role is invariably delegated to the most junior member of the team and Burns was seen undergoing intensive tuition in the specialist position from fielding coach Greg Blewett, teammates and Lehmann before play during the Gabba Test.

While temperatures in Perth, where the second Commonwealth Bank Test against New Zealand begins on Friday, are expected to soar into the high 30s over the weekend Lehmann has foreshadowed some heavy duty fielding practice in the lead-up to the match.

Asked to assess his team’s fielding in a Test that Australia dominated from the opening session last Thursday but in which they muffed several straightforward chances, Lehmann answered brusquely: "Average at best".

"Even our ground fielding, and we pride ourselves on that," he said.

"So there’s a bit of work coming up for the lads.

"We could have stopped a lot more balls that we didn’t."

Quizzed on his view of Burns’s effort at short-leg, where he missed a difficult chance from the first ball that NZ opener Martin Guptill faced in the Black Caps’ second innings, Lehmann gave no indication that the Queenslander would be moved elsewhere in the field.

"He (Burns) just needs work," Lehmann said.

"We saw him out doing that (before play).

"He’s just going to have to do more work, (spend) more time on his fielding and probably Uzzy (Khawaja) to be fair.

"They’ve got to move better and field at the level you’d expect of international cricketers."

While Lehmann rated the Australians’ batting as "very impressive" which was scarcely surprising given they piled on 820 for the loss of just eight wickets across both innings, he was not quite so upbeat about his bowling attack. 

WATCH: Burns posts maiden Test ton

All five specialist bowlers collected at least one wicket apiece in each of the Black Caps innings, but although Lehmann believed the collective bowling effort was better than what was seen in England during the unsuccessful Ashes campaign he noted there was further scope for improvement at the WACA.

And that, as well as greater sharpness in the field, will be the theme during the two days of training the rival teams will be afforded to get accustomed to the unique pitch conditions in Perth having travelled there from Brisbane today.

"I don’t think we bowled as well as we’d have liked," Lehmann said of Australia’s performance with the ball at the Gabba, where pace trio Mitchell Starc (six), Mitchell Johnson (four) and Josh Hazlewood (three) shared a bulk of the 20 NZ wickets to fall.

"I don’t think we bowled with the new ball as well as we could have, and give New Zealand credit – they left (the ball) well and made us work for it.

"But we’ve certainly got to get better in that area.

"I think they (NZ) had to play at less than half the balls with the new ball in the first 20 overs, so that’s something we’ll look at there."

Victorian seamer Peter Siddle, who was part of the 12-man squad for the first two Tests but was released to play in the Sheffield Shield match at the SCG that was ultimately abandoned due to unsafe playing conditions, rejoined the Test squad in Brisbane on Sunday.

Having been overlooked for Victoria’s starting XI throughout the Matador BBQs One-Day Cup series last month, it was hoped could get some overs under his belt in the Shield competition should he be in the reckoning for the second Test in Perth.

However, the early termination of the match at the Sydney Cricket Ground meant he only completed 11 overs and took the one wicket to fall – in-form New South Wales opener Ryan Carters.