Australia

Steven Smith has dispelled doubts about his fitness ahead of Australia’s first Test against Sri Lanka, but Mitchell Starc but still faces a crucial lead-in to overcome a finger injury. The two stars of Australia’s last tour to Sri Lanka, Smith and Starc, headline a long injury list for the tourists ahead of the opening

Glenn Maxwell had always held out hope, if not always complete belief, that he would get another chance in Test cricket. But he did not want to tempt fate in Sri Lanka, so did not pack his baggy green. And as it turns out, he’ll need a new one in Galle with the original having

Australia A 254 (Peirson 67*, Rasanjana 5-82) and 370 for 5 (Peirson 128*, Hunt 107, Hardie 78*) beat Sri Lanka A 330 for 9 dec (Dananjaya 92, Udara 63, Arachchige 61, Boland 4-38, Steketee 4-69) and 290 (Dananjaya 77, Arachchige 58, Boland 3-51, Sangha 3-53) by five wickets Queensland wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson completed an outstanding

Innings break Sri Lanka 160 all out (Chamika 75, Hazlewood 2-22, Cummins 2-22) vs Australia Sri Lanka’s rolling collapse ate up the top order, decimated the middle, and threatened to wipe out the tail, until Chamika Karunaratne intervened with 75 off 74. He lifted Sri Lanka from an embarrassing 85 for 8, to 160 all

Australia have been handed another injury concern ahead of the Test series against Sri Lanka with Travis Head ruled out of the final ODI in Colombo due to a hamstring problem. Head sustained the injury late in the fourth match and has just six days to recover before the first Test in Galle. If he

After two years of planning and delays caused by Covid-19 the BBL has finally unveiled an overseas player draft for the upcoming season. Here is everything you need to know. What is the overseas draft?BBL teams will no longer go out and search for their three overseas players privately. They will select a minimum of

Lisa Sthalekar has become the first woman to be appointed president of the Federation of International Cricketers’ Association (FICA). The former Australia captain was confirmed at the FICA Executive Committee meeting held in Nyon, Switzerland. She will take up a position that has previously been held by former South Africa batter Barry Richards, former West

Australia won the toss and decided to bowl against Sri Lanka Australia have won the toss and chosen to bowl first in the fourth ODI at Khettarama. This is an unusual choice at a venue on which chases are historically difficult. They had lost the third ODI batting first, however, and are down 2-1 in

Travis Head claims he is already feeling comfortable on Sri Lanka’s wickets after working his way to a second big score of Australia’s tour in their six-wicket ODI loss in Colombo. Head played a starring role in Australia’s innings of 291 for 6 on Sunday, hitting an unbeaten 70 from 65 balls as he anchored

Big Picture Other than the opening T20I which was a very one-sided affair, Sri Lanka have heaped the pressure on Australia during this tour. They nearly stole a low-scoring clash in the second T20I, thrillingly won the third game off the bat of captain Dasun Shanaka, were only beaten by a Glenn Maxwell special at

Australia won the toss and decided to bat against Sri Lanka Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh will play their first matches of the ODI series but Steven Smith misses out with his quad injury and Mitchell Starc waits a bit longer for his return. Jhye Richardson has also been brought back into the line-up with

Sri Lanka produced a stirring victory in game two to level the series thanks to an excellent bowling and fielding display. Australia collapsed under the pressure of a chase to lose 5 for 19 and be bowled out for just 189. It was Sri Lanka’s spinners, in the absence of Wanindu Hasaranga, who sparked the

Australian quick Mitchell Starc is still holding out hope of featuring in the ODI series against Sri Lanka, but only if it doesn’t compromise his chances of playing in the Tests. Starc sliced open his left index finger on his shoe spike during his follow through in the T20I series opener last week. The 32-year-old

Australia won the toss and decided to bowl against Sri Lanka Australia won the toss and chose to bowl first in the second ODI, as both sides made changes forced by injury. Left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann makes his debut for Australia. He was called into the squad only yesterday, and gets the chance on the

Australia’s injury woes have deepened on the tour of Sri Lanka with Marcus Stoinis ruled out of the remainder of the ODI series with a side strain while Ashton Agar‘s future on the trip remains doubtful with a similar problem. Travis Head and the uncapped left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann have been called up from the

In other notable movements among bowlers, Hazlewood’s team-mate Ashton Agar gained three places to move up to ninth, while Sri Lanka’s Maheesh Theekshana jumped 16 spots to eighth. Bhuvneshwar Kumar‘s six wickets in three games against South Africa helped him rise three places to No. 11 with a career-best ratings points total of 635.

While the ODI series is their next focus, Australia have twin ambitions over the next couple of weeks in Sri Lanka as they look to take advantage of a world returning to something closer to normal after the many restrictions of the last two years. For the first time since the 2019 tour of England,

Sri Lanka chose to bat vs Australia Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bat first in the first ODI against Australia, at Pallekele. The hosts are again playing with six recognised batters, plus two allrounders, and three specialist bowlers. Dunith Wellalage, the 19-year old left-arm spinner who can bat a bit, is making

Almost two days after he’d played the T20I innings of a lifetime, Dasun Shanaka revealed his thinking going into the last three overs of that chase. Australia having set 177 for a target, Sri Lanka needed a highly improbable 59 for victory, with the last recognised batting pair at the crease. Shanaka, who had lumbered

Unsurprisingly, Labuschagne has had an impressive start to his ODI career after making his debut in early 2020. He has a century and four fifties in his 15 innings with a healthy strike-rate of 91.51 – that latter figure important in a batting order that Aaron Finch wants to “push the boundaries” of the totals

Australia’s limited-overs captain Aaron Finch revealed that Pat Cummins had been carrying his hip problem for more than a year as the injury list among his squad in Sri Lanka continued to grow. Cummins, who was rested from the T20I series, left the IPL early to recover and is primed to return in the opening

Australia captain Meg Lanning and the late Shane Warne have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List. Lanning, who has led Australia to consecutive T20 World Cup titles and most recently the ODI World Cup, has been awarded Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to women’s cricket at the elite level.

Not much has gone wrong for Australia’s T20I side since the start of last year’s World Cup, but Saturday night’s heady scenes in Pallekele – as Sri Lanka pummelled a record-breaking 59 from the last three overs – put the spotlight on an area of their game that will need some refinement ahead of their

Australia have plenty of all-round options to choose from for the ODI series in Pallekele and Colombo with Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Green, all in the squad. Green made a spectacular century for Australia A against Sri Lanka A on Tuesday and even opened the bowling in the Pakistan series. He did not bowl

Australia won the toss for the third time in the series, but have chosen to bat first on this occasion. Perhaps, because the surface at Pallekele could be better for the spinners in the second innings. Or, maybe because they want to challenge themselves in a different direction. They had won both the T20Is in

Sri Lanka A 315 for 6 (Dickwella 83, Bandara 73*, Kuhnemann 3-43) beat Australia A 312 (Head 110, Hardie 58, Pramod 4-50) by four wickets Travis Head picked up his one-day form from the series against Pakistan with a blistering hundred for Australia A, but it was Sri Lanka A who came out on top

Big Picture The tour has moved to the hill country of Kandy for the final T20I and opening games of the ODI series. Australia wrapped up their first trophy of the trip in barely 24 hours with back-to-back wins in Colombo, although the second one came in an untidy chase that was a reminder of

Toss Australia won the toss and chose to field against Sri Lanka Australia have won the toss and chosen to bowl first again, with the second T20I between these teams to be played on the same pitch as that on which Australia romped to a 10-wicket victory on Tuesday. Although Mitchell Starc was excellent during

Finch entered the tour with his form again under scrutiny after four low scores in five innings at the IPL and unconvincing returns for Australia for much of the last 12 months. Former team-mate Shane Watson had even gone as far as to say that Finch’s form could be a “liability” for Australia heading into

Bowling allrounder Sean Abbott has been ruled out of the rest of the Sri Lanka tour after fracturing his finger in the nets, while Peter Handscomb has also left the Australia A squad to be with his pregnant partner in Melbourne. Abbott was part of Australia’s T20I squad that was preparing for the first T20I