Sri Lanka's batsmen plan change of attack

"There are no excuses, we probably could have been much more positive with our shot selection," Jayawardene said. "We were just trying to see how things were going rather than taking a few more chances."

Mahela always owns up and takes a hit for the team when it comes to the post match press briefing; you have to give that to the man.

Just last night as Vaas and Malinga were putting on handy runs for the final wicket, we at www.slcricket.com were debating on our batsman's approach to this match. They were too tentative. I wouldn't classify our batsman’s approach as negative either; there would be no justifying the countless swipes outside the off stump.

So what was it, the pace or the bounce? I mean how many years of touring does it take before a batsman can adjust to steeper bounce and seam movement? All valid questions considering we have been struggling in Australia for 20 years now. Batsmen do take time to adjust to new conditions this is not something that only affects the Lankan top order, why then do we struggle more than any of our south Asian brothers?

I think it's time Lanka goes into a test with a realistic game plan that's conducive to our current line up of batsman. Each batter should have a game plan suited to their natural batting ability. Marvan for instance is well suited to open the batting in test and his solid technique can cope with the new ball in Aussie conditions. Where as Sanath only opened the batting in the ODI game due to fielding restrictions and the power plays. There is no need to risk Sanath against a new ball in seamer friendly conditions. His technique and game play ensures the odds are against him when opening the batting in Australia. We need Sanath in the middle order as the Aussies need Gilly in the middle. If the top 3 can play out 2 sessions we are in the game, it’s as simple as that when we have one of the world's best bowling attacks.

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