Australia have unlocked the blueprint for how to win on the subcontinent with their mauling in Galle of the Sri Lankans.
It’s the style of game which can bring success when they next go to Asia in early 2027 to end their Test series drought in India of 20-plus years.
They played like the home team and Sri Lanka looked like the tourists unfamiliar with the conditions in the first Test.
In batting, spin, pace and definitely fielding, the Aussies outplayed them right across the park.
I was a bit worried coming into this Test given Sri Lanka’s strong home record and the way their batters and spinners have performed in Galle but it was just a complete shellacking.
Previously when the Aussies have gone to Sri Lanka, every tour has been tough even though we’ve won the odd Test.
But this was an absolute mauling and it’s a blueprint for subcontinent performance – you win the toss, bat deep and then bowl your spinners with plenty of pace through the air to have their batters second-guessing themselves.
There were criticisms of Steve Smith batting too long before declaring but that means nothing when you win by the end of day four and you’ve lost a significant amount, more than two sessions the day before, with rain.
Sri Lanka’s performance is why the ICC is looking at a two-tiered system in Tests.
We’re not expecting the Sri Lankans and the lower-ranked countries to come to Australia and dominate until they build a stronger team but if teams can’t be competitive at home, that is a major concern and they were woeful.
If you look at their team, on paper, it was pretty strong and they have done well in recent Test series – they beat New Zealand and weren’t disgraceful in foreign conditions against England or South Africa, so this performance is hopefully an anomaly.
I just didn’t like it from the start. They’ve got to know that when Travis Head opens, that he’s going to treat it like a 50-over game or a T20 so you should set fields accordingly.
Matt Kuhnemann celebrates after taking the wicket of Jeffrey Vandersay. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Their DRS was awful. Head was plumb LBW and they got that wrong and did so again with Usman Khawaja on day one.
They’re dropping catches and the Khawaja-Smith partnership was basically, we just have to wait for them to play a bad shot.
As long as the Aussies got bat on ball in front of the wicket, there were easy runs.
The Sri Lankan spinners had no penetration. You look at Prabath Jayasuriya the last time we toured there three years ago and there was a real vicious bowling action that gets drift and turn.
And then you get to this Test, he takes two steps, stops and then bowls. It’s almost like he is just rolling them out.
I saw their captain Dhananjaya de Silva’s quotes that they decided to bowl a bit slower. Why? On a slow pitch?
That’s why the Aussies have Matt Kuhnemann. That’s why guys like Ravindra Jadeja do so well in these conditions.
Left-arm orthodoxes that bowl quick and have a reasonable arm ball are going to dominate. But Jayasuriya just rolled them out, as did the other spinners.
Late on day two, it just looked like a different pitch with the Aussies spinners. Everyone was biting and spinning and they’re getting caught on the crease.
I don’t expect that to happen in home conditions for Sri Lanka. I expect them to know the conditions better and them to be setting the plans and the standard.
Our batters were able to play back to their spinners, spread the field and rack up big scores.
Head did his job at the top of the order even though I would have liked Sam Konstas to have been playing.
Uzzy is the classic example of how a cricketer can change the perception about them. He was almost unpickable in subcontinent tours and now that’s his fifth hundred in Asia,
Josh Inglis celebrates after scoring his century. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Smith’s three hundreds over his past four Tests have been classics. He wants to come down the wicket, but he didn’t look like getting stumped.
There was one extraordinary shot, getting outside the line of leg stump and just crashing it inside out over cover for four.
He is an example for the Sri Lankans, how to play spin and score at a really quick rate.
And well done to him too on notching 10,000 runs, at the second-highest average of the 15 guys in that exclusive club at 56.33 behind Kumar Sangakkara’s 57.4.
I’d love to see his average be in the mid 50s when he retires because then you are part of the absolute elite. There’s a few batters who have averaged over 50, but not many over 55.
Josh Inglis has been waiting so long as the spare batter and he’s played plenty of white-ball cricket and not unlike Beau Webster in Sydney, he just looked like he knew his game.
He used his feet, swept traditionally and reversed. They didn’t know where to bowl because for the same ball, he might come down the crease and drive it through the offside, he might just play a normal sweep or reverse it – you can be hit three different ways.
His 102 on debut was an exhilarating knock, the second quickest hundred on debut, but it gets lost a bit just with all the other magnificent Aussie performances.
Alex Carey’s glovework was fantastic as well – his stumping work’s been a treat for a few years now. And I think there’ll be plenty more in the second Test.
And then with the ball, Mitchell Starc shows why he is an automatic selection in subcontinental conditions. He just gets early wickets.
They didn’t need to overbowl him – he finished with 3-27 off 13 overs for the match – and I think he could have knocked over the tail with reverse swing as well if the spinners weren’t running amok.
And what a recovery from Kuhnemann. I was commentating that BBL game when he broke his thumb and my first thought was he’s out of the Sri Lankan tour.
So the recovery in just a few weeks was huge – everything he’s done is remarkable to take nine wickets.
He looked the best spinner on either side and that’s not downplaying Nathan Lyon’s role to take seven for the match. But left-arm orthodox to right-hander in the subcontinent is a must-have and he’s an under-rated gun in these conditions.
He looks unflustered. He doesn’t fly too high when he’s getting wickets and he doesn’t get too down when he’s not.
Todd Murphy didn’t bowl at his best but it’s good to get another Test under his belt and with Lyon entering the final phase of his career, the Aussies are future-proofing their team from a spin perspective.
Bowlologisthttps://www.theroar.com.au/2025/02/02/flems-verdict-how-galle-shellacking-gives-aussies-a-blueprint-for-success-in-subcontinent/Flem’s Verdict: How Galle shellacking gives Aussies a blueprint for success in subcontinent
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