“Playing on two different pitches in Galle good preparation for India tour,” Australian captain Pat Cummins reflects on the positives after losing Galle test by an innings

The Australian captain Pat Cummins is of the view that the fact that his team got the opportunity to play on two completely different cricket pitches in Galle in the two test match series against Sri Lanka, will help them prepare well for the huge test series coming up against India next year.

While the venue of both the test matches between Australia and Sri Lanka was Galle, the surfaces were very different from the two test matches. The surface in the first test match was a rank turner and it brought even the part-time spinners like Travis Head into play, apart from the main spinners.

Since most of the spinners were in play and not the highest quality of spin was required to get wickets on that surface in the first test, it narrowed the gap between the two teams, and Australia, with some very good, attacking cricket, managed to win that test match to take a 1-0 lead in the series.

Half of our players have not played in these conditions before Pat Cummins

The surface for the second test match was a typical subcontinent surface. It was very good for batting for the first three days of the game with an oddball turning here and there, but then on the fourth day, it started spinning big.

Because of the nature of the surface on the first three days, it became a game where the first innings lead mattered a lot. While Australia posted a decent total of 364 batting first in the game, Sri Lanka went big and took a 190-run lead in their first innings, which proved to be the game-defining lead at the end.

According to Pat Cummins, who was speaking in the post-match press conference, half of the members of the current Australian test team haven’t got a lot of experience of playing in these conditions and because they got two distinct pitches to play on in the two games, it was a great learning curve for them.