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O'Keefe sweetens for Kandy call-up

Darren Lehmann all-but confirms Australia will play two spinners in first Test after the left-armer's star turn in Colombo warm-up

Barring the manifestation of a grass-tinged pitch – about as likely in Sri Lanka at this time of year as a crisp afternoon with zero humidity – then Australia will take a dual-spin attack into the opening Test at Pallekele starting on Tuesday.

Coach Darren Lehmann confirmed as much in the aftermath of his team's uncompromising 162-run win over a shell-shocked invitational XI yesterday, confident he knows the conditions that await when the Australians arrive in the comparative cool of the hill country this afternoon.

That view is galvanised by the knowledge that Sri Lanka's stocks of available fast bowlers has dwindled faster than the British pound over the past month.

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And the folly, therefore, of rolling out a pitch of benefit to the tourists' quicks while exacerbating their own shortcomings is obvious to even the most benevolent hosts.

The strips that the Australians encountered over more than a week's practice on the Tamil Union Cricket Club surface at Colombo's P Sara Stadium are likely to be the first and last glimpses of grass the seamers see during this three-Test series.

And even then it was the finger spinners from either side who collected 18 of the 29 wickets to fall across the two-and-a-fraction days of the sole warm-up game ahead of the Tests.

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"You probably have to ask the chairman (of selectors, Rod Marsh), he's here as well," Lehmann told reporters when asked if there was any circumstance he could foreshadow that would convince the Australians to take three specialist seamers into the first Test.

"But I think we would probably be leaning towards two spinners the way conditions are."

Which means Steve O'Keefe will line up for his third Test match in just over two years and, perhaps more significantly given that Australia is scheduled to play seven Tests in subcontinental conditions over the next nine months, a re-shaping of recent bowling plans is on the cards.

As he showed with his unofficial man of the match performance at P Sara – 10 wickets at 6.4 runs each and a game-high 78no batting at number eight – O'Keefe is far and beyond a second-string spinner who can hold up an end.

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His first-class career return for New South Wales and Australia's Test and A-sides shows his 204 wickets have come at a miserly average of 23.82 and a strike rate of a wicket just shy of every 10 overs.

A return that, while largely cultivated at domestic level, would nonetheless be enviable among the great left-arm orthodox bowlers from across the Test cricket world over the past 30 years or more.

A list that includes New Zealand's Daniel Vettori, Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath, England's Monty Panesar and Bangladesh's Shakib Al-Hasan.

Indeed, left-arm spinners who have claimed 75 Test wickets or more since 1986 who hail from every Test nation – except Australia.

An anomaly partly rationalised because Australia's need for bowlers able to turn the ball away from right-handed batsmen over that time was instead filled by some useful wrist spinners – namely Shane Warne and Stuart MacGill, who boast more than 900 Test wickets between them.

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But Australia has also historically maintained diffident to the potency and the legitimacy of the left-arm finger spin art that has been a staple of rival Test teams for generations.

Tom Hogan in 1983-84 was the last to serve in that role as a specialist for more than half a dozen Tests, with others tried along the way (Murray Bennett, Xavier Doherty, Michael Beer and Ashton Agar ) managing a combined 11 Tests between them.

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The most successful in the Baggy Green over that time have been batsmen who dabble and potentially double as orthodox spinners when conditions dictate – Michael Clarke, Allan Border and Lehmann himself.

However, the absence of a specialist leg spinner in Australia's Test line-up since Bryce McGain's sole outing in 2009 (notwithstanding Steve Smith's bowling credentials at the outset of his career) means the preferred mode of slow bowling attack has been almost exclusively right-arm off-spin.

Image Id: ~/media/D2A09E6BD91D40C99DCEE1BC46C042F1 Image Caption: Boof bowls one in Sri Lanka in 2004 // Getty

Sometimes employing them in tandem, as Australia did with Lyon and Glenn Maxwell during their most recent series in subcontinental conditions in India (2013) and the UAE (2014).

But now, facing back-to-back away campaigns in Sri Lanka and India (where Australia has not won a Test series since 2004) Lehmann has indicated that O'Keefe presents not only a reliable, proven option but one that – on the strength of his tour game form this week – looms as a match winner.

"We know what we're going to get with him," Lehmann said of the 31-year-old left-arm spinner.

"He's been excellent for New South Wales and had a lot of success in (Sheffield) Shield.

"He's worked really hard, he's a lively, buzzing-around character for us and played exactly the role we wanted him to play here in this game (in Colombo).

"He bats really well, fields really well and complements Nathan with spinning (the ball) the other way.

"We think that's the way to go.

"Obviously India do it there with (left-armer Ravindra) Jadeja and (off-spinner Ravi) Ashwin, and most teams have spinners going both ways.

"So for us, that's important."