Paine's team talk a note for the future

The opening Domain Test of the two-match series against Sri Lanka was just 43 minutes past its scheduled midway point when Australia captain Tim Paine pulled his men together into a team huddle.

The sun was already low in the Brisbane summer sky, but the spirits within the group were high.

This was no instructional rant for an outfit that had been through the wringer over the past 10 months during which it had suffered successive series defeats at the hands of South Africa, Pakistan and India.

This was a celebration, coming as it did in the immediate aftermath of the skipper’s emphatic stumping that put the exclamation point on victory by an innings and 40 runs, with seven sessions and seventeen minutes up their sleeves.

The message that Paine imparted to his young, inexperienced outfit was not triumphalist.

Nor was it an articulation of the blessed relief that must have coursed through them given the scale of the hammering they copped from India over Christmas-New Year.

Rather it was the calm, reassuring congratulations of a proud captain who understands acutely how vital is each positive forward step in the evolution of a team that has been hesitantly finding its feet since the rug was pulled out from beneath them last March.

"I was just saying well done, and that we can be really proud of the effort," Paine revealed post-match, when asked about the nature of the impromptu mid-wicket conference.

"It’s a new group coming together, six or seven of our 14 players were 25 or under, and I thought the ways we went about it was excellent, particularly our bowling group.

"So I just said if we execute with the ball and field the way we did, we’ll have success against a lot of teams on a lot of different surfaces."

The distilled-down version of that pep talk might well be that the Ashes campaign that begins in the UK in early August – which had seemed an almost forlorn cause as recently as a fortnight ago – is a realistic ambition.

The performances put up by those novices provides a basis for Paine’s optimism and, on the circumstantial evidence of a thumping win over an albeit lacklustre Sri Lanka opposition, carries more than a measure of merit.

The mainstay of Australia’s batting was new vice-captain Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne and debutant Kurtis Patterson whose 30 when batting in the most extreme conditions – under lights against the second new-ball – won him many admirers.

Just as important, in Paine’s assessment, was the added value the young brigade brought to Australia’s fielding, with Patterson plucking a pair of impressive catches in the gully and rookie opener Marcus Harris an equally tidy snare at square leg.

Then there was the bowling of another new cap, Western Australian fast bowler Jhye Richardson, who collected wickets in both innings and kept the run-rate so low that the Sri Lanka batters were left searching for their next available runs.

The source of most of those, on the final day that was dominated by Richardson’s bowling in tandem with Pat Cummins (6-23), was the attack’s most experienced member, Mitchell Starc.

The left-armer, who claimed his 200th Test wicket during Sri Lanka’s first innings, bowled with impressive pace but struggled to control the pink ball.

He was often too full, and battled to extract the same level of swing that Richardson so potently found, or whistled short balls erratically past batters which left Paine filling the role of soccer goalie on a regular basis.

"We have known for a long time what we are going to get from Starcy," Paine said tonight.

"Sometimes he can be a bit erratic, but when he’s on he is literally the best in the world.

"What we have got with those two (Cummins and Richardson) and Nathan (Lyon) is the ability to build up pressure over a long period of time, and then be able to release Starcy in really short spells.

"I think his best is not too far away, and while those two (Cummins and Richardson) are bowling like that, it allows us to use him slightly differently which is good.

"He is working really hard, he’s doing a lot of extra things … so clearly he knows he is not at his best but he’s working hard to get that.

"Starcy has been really good for a long period of time, but anyone at any level of cricket goes through times when it does not go your way ... he is one wicket and one spell away from being devastating.'"

It’s another reason why Paine was demonstrably upbeat in the wake of the Gabba win, despite the reality that Sri Lanka is currently ranked sixth on the ICC global Test ladder and no Australia batter has recorded a Test century during this home summer.

Which has just one more match to run, starring in Canberra next Friday.

It’s the depth that is being created, largely through necessity, that the captain sees as a positive indicator barely six months before the Ashes quest in the UK, where Australia has not won a Test series since 2001.

He pointed to the emergence of Head, Harris, Labuschagne and now Patterson, along with the imminent return of proven performers Steve Smith, David Warner (from suspension) and Josh Hazlewood (injury) for the Ashes campaign.

In addition, the selectors have auxiliary options including quicks James Pattinson, Peter Siddle, Chris Tremain and Daniel Worrall, allrounder the potential of Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Marsh, and young Test squad members Matthew Renshaw and Will Pucovski.

He believes it’s results like today’s innings victory that will help to fast-track that already noticeable development.

"For a young group it’s really pleasing, and no doubt it will do the confidence a world of good," Paine said of today’s win.

"But we’re not anywhere near the finished product, we’re a long way off where we want to be.

"And also you’ve got to take into account that for Sri Lanka to come to the Gabba is really, really tough.

"It’s completely out of their comfort zone - it’s hard for Australians to come from the southern states and play on that wicket with the extra bounce.

"We expect that Canberra will probably suit them a bit better, and we’re going to have to be right on top of our game to beat them in Canberra.

"It’s important that we start to play more consistently, regardless of the surface.

"But if the bowlers had executed in the last Test series like they did in this Test, I think we would have had a fair bit more success there as well."

Domain Test Series v Sri Lanka

Australia: Tim Paine (c/wk), Joe Burns, Pat Cummins, Marcus Harris, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Kurtis Patterson, Will Pucovski, Matt Renshaw, Jhye Richardson, Mitchell Starc, Peter Siddle

Sri Lanka: Dinesh Chandimal (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Dhananjaya de Silva, Roshen Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Kusal Perera, Dilruwan Perera, Lakshan Sandakan, Suranga Lakmal, Nuwan Pradeep, Lahiru Kumara, Dushmantha Chameera, Kasun Rajitha

First Test: Australia won by an innings and 40 runs

Second Test: February 1-5, Canberra