Sri Lanka have decided to bat first in the first Test against Australia after Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss on Wednesday at the Galle International Stadium. Sri Lanka are coming into this Test series after thrashing Australia 4-1 in the ODI series earlier in the month.
Australia have gone ahead with Mitchell Starc in place of Josh Hazlewood. Pat Cummins has gone with two seamers, two spinners and a couple of spinning all-rounders in the first Test against Sri Lanka. Jeffery Vandersay is making his Test debut for Sri Lanka.
“We are going to bat first. We know how the pitch is going to behave on Day 4 and 5, so we want to take advantage of the conditions. Jeffery Vandersay is playing. We are playing one seamer and three spinners,” said Dimuth Karunaratne at the toss.
Karunaratne’s counterpart Pat Cummins said, “We were looking to bat first as well. We have managed to put up a XI (laughs). Thankfully, Travis has pulled up well and is playing. It is weird seeing him (Josh Hazlewood) seating on the bench, he is a world-class bowler but we have gone with Starc.”
Squads:
Australia: Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Cameron Green, Alex Carey(w), Pat Cummins(c), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Swepson
Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne(c), Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dhananjaya de Silva, Dinesh Chandimal, Niroshan Dickwella(w), Ramesh Mendis, Jeffrey Vandersay, Lasith Embuldeniya, Asitha Fernando
