Aussie pair's unique slice of history

Amid the run-fest on day one of the second Test in Canberra, a world record was broken by Australia's freshest pair of century makers.

Joe Burns and Travis Head came together with Australia on the ropes at 3-28 in the ninth over on Friday and parted ways almost five hours later with the hosts in a commanding position at 4-336.

Their 308-run stand was the highest ever made for Australia against Sri Lanka in Test cricket, beating the unbroken stand of 260 between Steve Waugh and Dean Jones at Bellerive Oval in 1989.

But the mammoth partnership was also the highest stand compiled by two batters batting together for the first time.

The previous best was the 291 between England's Andrew Strauss and Rob Key against the West Indies at Lord's in 2004.

Head was unaware of the record but said he and Burns gelled quickly in their maiden partnership.

"Hopefully we can keep doing it again," Head said on cricket.com.au's Facebook Live chat this morning. 

"We hadn't batted together – we were talking about that out there actually. 

"We're both pretty relaxed characters so it was nice to do it for a long period of time. 

"We kept each other going, which was nice and hopefully plenty more runs with us two together."

The record partnership ended when Head was trapped lbw by left-armer Vishwa Fernando for 161, his maiden Test century.

Head had come close to reaching three figures in his previous eight Tests; he made 72 on Test debut in Dubai, 72 again on his home turf of Adelaide Oval against India and 84 in the series opener at the Gabba last month.

The 25-year-old said it was satisfying getting the monkey off the back and posting his first Test century in the Baggy Green.

"I've worked extremely hard over a period of time now and I felt I was getting good starts and getting myself in," Head said.

"It was disappointing not to get a hundred last week. 

"It was nice once I got that chance again, just to go through the same process, get myself in and once I had that chance go one and try and make it a big score."

It's been an up and down summer for Head.

Following his Test debut in the UAE, Head was dropped from the national 50-over side after three consecutive single-figure scores against South Africa on home soil.

He finished the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Series against India as Australia's second leading run-scorer and was handed the vice-captaincy alongside Pat Cummins for the Sri Lanka Tests after incumbent deputies Mitch Marsh (dropped) and Josh Hazlewood (injured) missed out. 

While disappointed with his ODI axing, the time away from the 50-over setup allowed him to hone his approach for the five-day game. And it paid off. 

"I think not too badly," Head said when asked how he's dealt with the rollercoaster international season. 

"Working extremely hard on my game. I've still got to get better at a lot of things, just got to continue to work. 

"Disappointed about the one-dayers but it gave me a little bit of opportunity to go home and work on a few things, worked on what I've been doing and that's helped in these two Test matches.

"I've found a little bit of a routine I guess in especially red ball (cricket). That's definitely helped in the last two Test matches." 

Despite his good Test form and stature as the team's vice-captain, the left-hander is not thinking about a possible Ashes series in England later this year.

"That's a long way away," he said.

"Hopefully win this Test match, have an amazing week, have another great four days and then I think the one-dayers get picked, whether I'm in that and I play one-day cricket, whether I've got Shield cricket there's a lot of cricket to go before the winter. 

"I'll continue to keep getting better, continue to work really hard and hopefully I can get as many runs as I can."

Domain Test Series v Sri Lanka

Australia: Tim Paine (c/wk), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Kurtis Patterson, Will Pucovski, Jhye Richardson, Peter Siddle, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis

Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dhananjaya de Silva, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Kusal Perera, Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Suranga Lakmal, Kasun Rajitha, Chamika Karunaratne, Vishwa Fernando

First Test: Australia won by an innings and 40 runs

Second Test: February 1-5, Canberra