Steve Smith feels Australia need to rethink their selection strategy

Australia lost the second Test of the series to Sri Lanka by 229 runs on Saturday to concede an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three-match Test series. Skipper Steve Smith is quite understandably disappointed with the performance of his side. He feels that Australia need to quickly rethink on the selection strategy with the national side’s increasingly grim record in Asia.

“Yeah it certainly needs to be looked at,” Smith said following the defeat. “If there are guys that can play spin well in these conditions then it’s certainly got to be a chance. It’s been too long now – I think it’s been 15 or 16 [17] games since we’ve won a game in the subcontinent, so whatever we’re doing it’s not working. So yeah there might be a need for some changes.”

This was the same batting line-up used through the summer in Australia and New Zealand. Smith feels that better players of spin (if available), should be included in the squad to win series in the sub-continent.

“The guys are a bit down at the moment and fair enough too, it’s been a tough series so far, we have been outplayed in both Test matches, the mood’s not great at the moment. We are a bit disappointed, but we’ve still got plenty to play for in Colombo,” Smith said. “We have got to try and prove to ourselves and the public that we can play in these conditions.

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However, the 27-year old said that Australia was a bit more proactive on the later part of the match with some conventional sweep shots and the reverse sweeps. “I thought the first innings was very disappointing, I thought today we were a little bit more proactive, we saw some sweep shots, some reverse sweeps, the guys using their feet and to get around 180 I thought probably around 200 in the last innings of this game or every innings of this match was probably around par. So we saw a little bit of proactive thinking and innovative thinking today to find a way, we just haven’t been able to do it for long periods of time, though,” he said.

“They have got some quality bowlers on their team that get the ball to spin and then skid sharply as well. I guess when the ball does spin sharply it sort of plays on your mind that you might just play outside of one. We haven’t been good enough with it and we have to find ways to just cover that ball that doesn’t spin. The majority of the time if it spins it spins too far, we have to forget about the ball before essentially and if it comes and does spin, hopefully, it spins past the stumps and the outside edge,” he concluded.

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