ESPNcricinfo understands that Hasaranga has been ruled out of at least the second match in Pallekele with a groin strain with medical staff yet to determine the length of his lay-off. He starred with bat and ball in the opening game, almost carrying Sri Lanka to victory, and will be a significant loss.
Australia were slightly surprised to see a used surface for the opening ODI but it still played reasonably well. Spinners certainly had the better time of it with 11 of the 15 wickets falling to spin.
Sri Lanka’s batters were impressive on a slowish surface but much like the T20I series, they need one of the top three to kick on to a big score to lay the platform for a total well over 300. Their spinners picked up wickets but they were unable to contain Australia’s powerful middle order, who continued to take brave options despite the risks involved with Maxwell showing there is no ground small enough when he’s on song.
(last five matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka LWLWW
Australia WLLWW
Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Danushka Gunathilaka, 2 Pathum Nissanka, 3 Kusal Mendis (wk), 4 Dhananjaya de Silva, 5 Charith Asalanka, 6 Dasun Shanaka (capt), 7 Chamika Karunaratne, 8 Dunith Wellalage, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Jeffrey Vandersay, 11 Maheesh Theekshana
Australia (possible): 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch (capt), 3 Steven Smith, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Alex Carey (wk), 6 Travis Head/Josh Inglis, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Jhye Richardson, 10 Mitchell Swepson, 11, Josh Hazlewood
The ODI series opener was on a used surface, the same strip as the third T20I game being brought back up. There was a second pitch being prepared and it would likely be used for game two. But the pitches have been reasonably good for batting in Pallekele so far with spinners only getting a little bit of purchase.
“I thought it was a decent effort. I think we were a little bit sloppy in the field. We like to keep our standards up. There’s a couple of things I think to look at going into tomorrow’s game. But overall the bowling was pretty good.”
Pat Cummins on the areas Australia could do better in