mas cambios
Active Member
Sri Lanka vs Australia
Sri Lanka in Australia Series Preview
The new era of Australian cricket begins on Thursday when they take to the test field for the first time since the retirements of Warne, McGrath and Langer. Though the names on the Brisbane scorecard will look different it’s a familiar tale as Australian team are the strong favourites to the take the two match series against Sri Lanka.
Whilst the aforementioned trio may have gone, the conveyor belt of Australian domestic cricket has churned out replacements in the guise of Phil Jaques, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus (in for the injured Shaun Tait). Jaques is a shoe in to open the batting with Hayden with the rest of the batting line up looking to be largely unchanged with Ponting at three to be followed by Clarke, Hussey, Symonds and Gilchrist.
The new look attack will be spearheaded by Brett Lee and Stuart Clark, who will be looking to repeat the successes of his debut year in test cricket. McGill should be included as the spinner (he already has a fine test record) but it would be foolish to completely rule out Hogg who has had a decent year in the one day version of the game, especially as McGill is recovering from minor knee surgery and was flayed to all parts of the ground during a Pura Cup game last week.
Sri Lanka will be coming in this test off the back of one day series loss to England and a 4 wicket defeat to Queensland in their final warm up game. Though there were few positive to come from this game, Sri Lanka will look to pick themselves up and support their favourite son in his quest to overhaul Shane Warne’s record of 708 test wickets.
There is familiar feel to the Sri Lanka batting line up despite the absence of the injured Kumar Sangakkara, who will be replaced by Prasanna Jayawardene. There should also be a place for the recalled Marvan Atapattu, especially as Mahela Jayawardene and the opener Sanath Jayasuriya have so far struggled for runs in the springy Australian conditions and his experience could prove vital.
The bowling attack looks more settled with experience coming in the form of Chaminda Vaas and explosive pace from the round armed Malinga. The third seamers spot is between Maharoof or Fernando. Maharoof took 6 wickets in the game against Queensland to further his claims, whilst Fernando was rested along with others.
The spin spot is where all eyes will be focused as a certain Murali aims not only to take the 9 wickets needed to regain the record but also to silence his Australian critics. He is fully aware that the Australian crowd will be on his back, indeed, he boycotted the previous test series on Aussie soil in 2004. However, Murali is determined to put the past behind him and improve on his 8 wickets at 63.12 whilst helping Sri Lanka get something from the series which will now also take his name, alongside his rival Warne.
On paper and looking at recent history, Australia should walk from this with a series win but you’d be a fool to write of the Sri Lankans and that man, Murali. No matter which way you look at look at it we are in a two tests full of personal tussles as new faces strive to cement their place and old faces try to conquer old foes.
Fixtures:
November
Fri 2 - Sun 4
Queensland v Sri Lankans
Allan Border Field, Brisbane
Thu 8 - Mon 12
1st Test - Australia v Sri Lanka
Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane
Fri 16 - Tue 20
2nd Test - Australia v Sri Lanka
Bellerive Oval, Hobart
Sri Lanka in Australia Series Preview
The new era of Australian cricket begins on Thursday when they take to the test field for the first time since the retirements of Warne, McGrath and Langer. Though the names on the Brisbane scorecard will look different it’s a familiar tale as Australian team are the strong favourites to the take the two match series against Sri Lanka.
Whilst the aforementioned trio may have gone, the conveyor belt of Australian domestic cricket has churned out replacements in the guise of Phil Jaques, Brad Hogg, Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus (in for the injured Shaun Tait). Jaques is a shoe in to open the batting with Hayden with the rest of the batting line up looking to be largely unchanged with Ponting at three to be followed by Clarke, Hussey, Symonds and Gilchrist.
The new look attack will be spearheaded by Brett Lee and Stuart Clark, who will be looking to repeat the successes of his debut year in test cricket. McGill should be included as the spinner (he already has a fine test record) but it would be foolish to completely rule out Hogg who has had a decent year in the one day version of the game, especially as McGill is recovering from minor knee surgery and was flayed to all parts of the ground during a Pura Cup game last week.
Sri Lanka will be coming in this test off the back of one day series loss to England and a 4 wicket defeat to Queensland in their final warm up game. Though there were few positive to come from this game, Sri Lanka will look to pick themselves up and support their favourite son in his quest to overhaul Shane Warne’s record of 708 test wickets.
There is familiar feel to the Sri Lanka batting line up despite the absence of the injured Kumar Sangakkara, who will be replaced by Prasanna Jayawardene. There should also be a place for the recalled Marvan Atapattu, especially as Mahela Jayawardene and the opener Sanath Jayasuriya have so far struggled for runs in the springy Australian conditions and his experience could prove vital.
The bowling attack looks more settled with experience coming in the form of Chaminda Vaas and explosive pace from the round armed Malinga. The third seamers spot is between Maharoof or Fernando. Maharoof took 6 wickets in the game against Queensland to further his claims, whilst Fernando was rested along with others.
The spin spot is where all eyes will be focused as a certain Murali aims not only to take the 9 wickets needed to regain the record but also to silence his Australian critics. He is fully aware that the Australian crowd will be on his back, indeed, he boycotted the previous test series on Aussie soil in 2004. However, Murali is determined to put the past behind him and improve on his 8 wickets at 63.12 whilst helping Sri Lanka get something from the series which will now also take his name, alongside his rival Warne.
On paper and looking at recent history, Australia should walk from this with a series win but you’d be a fool to write of the Sri Lankans and that man, Murali. No matter which way you look at look at it we are in a two tests full of personal tussles as new faces strive to cement their place and old faces try to conquer old foes.
Fixtures:
November
Fri 2 - Sun 4
Queensland v Sri Lankans
Allan Border Field, Brisbane
Thu 8 - Mon 12
1st Test - Australia v Sri Lanka
Brisbane Cricket Ground, Woolloongabba, Brisbane
Fri 16 - Tue 20
2nd Test - Australia v Sri Lanka
Bellerive Oval, Hobart
What a stupid thing to do hes a potential match winner. IF im right they dropped him on a hunch about what might happen? Thats crazy stuff.