Length more than pace key to Australia spinners’ success, says Smith

It was the length Australian spinners bowled that helped them take 20 Sri Lanka wickets so easily. This is what the stand-in captain Steven Smith felt after his team inflicted a record innings-and-242-run victory on Sri Lanka in the first Test.

The Sri Lanka batters struggled substantially against the spinners, losing 17 wickets to them in Galle. Left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann took 9 for 149 in the match, to top the wicket-chart for the series so far.

“I just think he bowls nice balls consistently,” Smith said of Kuhnemann. “Left-arm spinners to right-hand batters – it just works in the subcontinent.

“He did a wonderful job when he bowled in India [where he took nine wickets across five innings in early 2023], and he bowled beautifully again in this game. It’s a pretty good effort.”

Australia, unusually, played only one frontline seam bowler. Mitchell Starc has an outstanding record in Sri Lanka, but spin nevertheless claimed a bulk of the Sri Lanka wickets to fall in this Test, leaving just three for Starc.

“I thought all the spinners worked really well together, and that’s the beauty of having three frontline spin bowlers,” Smith said. “You can sort of chop and change them, and as soon as one’s not looking quite as effective, and the batter gets a bit of a read on them or they get a little bit tired, you put the next one on and wait to see what’s happening.”

But, while Australia’s spinners took 17 wickets in the Test, Sri Lanka’s spinners managed only the six.

“For me, for [the] spinners it’s more length than pace,” Smith said. “If you can consistently hit a good length, then regardless of what’s going on, you’re going to be in play. If you can get the ball to skid or one to rag – the length where they’re lunging forward and can’t get back to it or they can’t drive at that length. If you’re hitting that consistently, your pace is kind of irrelevant, I think.”

Australia scored 654 for 6 declared in the first innings. This is generally a position from which teams tend not to lose, and Australia felt especially confident, considering how quickly the pitch was deteriorating.

“I think they lost 7 for 17 [7 for 15] across the day today at one point. It was one of those where it was really tough to start on, and as soon as we got a breakthrough, we always felt we could get another one quickly.”