Australia name two debutants for first Sri Lanka Test

Australia have named debutants Kurtis Patterson and Jhye Richardson and recalled opener Joe Burns for the first Test against Sri Lanka beginning in Brisbane today. Patterson scored centuries in both innings playing for the Cricket Australia XI against Sri Lanka in Hobart last week, prompting selectors to call him into the squad.
The 25-year-old has scored 3,813 first-class runs for New South Wales at an average of 41.00 and will bat at number six. West Australian fast bowler Richardson, who was impressive in the ODI series against India, comes in for the injured Josh Hazlewood.
Selectors resisted the temptation to blood 20-year-old batsman Will Pucovski, who many are touting as the next Ricky Ponting, opting instead for the experienced Burns. Burns, 29, played his last Test against South Africa in April last year but has three Test centuries to his name.
Meanwhile, Australian captain Tim Paine said yesterday that Sri Lanka should prepare themselves for a bouncer barrage at the day-night Test in Brisbane. Paine said that Australia’s much-vaunted pace attack hadn’t used the bouncer effectively in their recent series loss to India.
The Australians went into the Test series against India boasting one of the most formidable pace attacks in world cricket — but Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins were comprehensively outbowled by their Indian counterparts.
To make matters worse, the three pacemen failed to get a single lbw decision as India claimed a historic series win. Paine said while praise should go to the Indian batsmen, his bowlers will be better prepared when the day-night Test against Sri Lanka begins today.
“India batted really well,” he conceded. “Sub-continent players, when the wickets are good, like the ball being bowled at their stumps and they don’t miss too many when they’re in the form some of those guys were in.”
The Australian skipper said the bowling attack, which has lost Hazlewood to injury, would have to improve on the lively Gabba wicket. “Look, I would have liked to have been hitting the stumps a little bit more than we were and that’s been spoken about,” he said. “But I also felt we didn’t use the bouncer as much in that series as we would have liked. Sometimes when you use the bouncer a couple of times an over, when you do pitch it up it’s a bit more effective.”
He said his team was now squarely focused on the Sri Lankans. “We want to be scoring hundreds, but most of all we want to win the series,” Paine said. “We know it’s going to be hard, but it starts out here tomorrow and it starts in the first hour — that’s as simple as it is for us.”
Sri Lanka have closely studied the way India defeated Australia, but captain Dinesh Chandimal said his side will still need a miracle to do the same. Chandimal was cautious when asked about Sri Lanka’s chances.
“It’s definitely a challenge for us, and if you can take this challenge — and as a batsman or as a bowler you give it your best shot and give 200% to the team — we can do a miracle here,” he said. “That’s what we want to do as a team, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed.”
Chandimal said he had kept a close eye on the “outstanding cricket” played by India in their first Test series win in Australia, which wrapped up earlier this month. “When India were bowling between 40 and 80 overs they didn’t give any runs away in that period. They kept it at under three an over. That’s the area where I think they won the series,” he said. “If we want to win a game that is the area we’ll have to improve, and we’re aware of that.”
Chandimal said he wanted to make history and become the first Sri Lankan captain to win a Test series in Australia, but wouldn’t take his opponents lightly.