Sanath Jayasuriya, Sri Lanka’s head coach, slammed batting performance of the team after their innings and 242-run defeat to Australia in the first Test in Galle. On a pitch that he believed was a good batting track, Jayasuriya put the blame on shot selection and not handling situations properly as per the loss.

“We cannot blame the wicket because we saw how the wicket did behave. This was a very good wicket. For a long time, we haven’t seen such a good wicket in Galle, on the third and fourth days. So there was a serious problem with shot selection as well as handling situations. I don’t think that certain players have handled the situation well. They’re experienced players and they have to be more mature in handling these situations. Because they’ve played enough cricket to take control of these kinds of situations. Such situations shall be handled in a more professional manner than this,” he said.

However, Australia scored well on Usman Khawaja’s maiden double hundred, Steve Smith’s hundred and Josh Inglis’s first three-figure knock in Tests to post a mammoth 654/6 declared in their first innings as well. In reply, Sri Lanka were bowled out for 165 in their first essay, with Dinesh Chandimal top-scoring with 72 as well.

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“The biggest problem is the batters who are getting a start, are not going on to play a long innings. This is something I mutter always. We saw Khawaja, Smith and Inglis, all three of them took a good start and they converted them to big hundreds. This conversion must be there. We’re not consistent in that. Our players should know that these are our conditions and we must make use of these conditions. There were lots of opportunities but we didn’t make use of them,” said Jayasuriya.

While praising the Australian batters for adapting well to the conditions, Sanath Jayasuriya was critical of Sri Lanka’s performance as well.

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“We can’t control the toss but we should have controlled the first session of the game. We dropped two or three catches and we didn’t review crucial decisions too. I think the fielding was the key issue, dropping a few catches in the first session. It would have been a different story altogether, if we got wickets at those stages,” he added.

“Then they batted really well. Both Khawaja and Smith. The wicket was on a slower side. They adjusted really well. They played on the front foot and back foot well. Also they played both sides of the wicket. We were trying very hard but they outplayed us. They played positive cricket and they got runs on the board. That was the key difference. We didn’t take half chances and crucial decisions, it’s difficult to combat a team like this. So you need to take your half chances. Even the review, if you think it’s 50-50, you’ll have to go for it,” Sanath Jayasuriya concluded.