Aussies consider bold batting ploy for Galle mystery pitch

While speculation has raged over the micro-detail of where in the Test line-up he may or may not bat, Travis Head has revealed Australia are looking to adopt a much broader change to how they tackle Test cricket on the subcontinent.

Enduring mystery over the precise nature of the Galle pitch for the first Test against Sri Lanka starting on Wednesday has the tourists contemplating a radical shift whereby they deploy a different batting order in the second innings than was used in the first.

The bold strategy has been discussed within the team, and will likely depend on how markedly the Galle track changes from batting-friendly to raging turner as might be the case on Australia's previous experience here in 2022.

On that tour, the surface prepared for the opening Test spun sharply from day one and Australia completed a 10-wicket win before the following match at the same venue a week later yielded a 'flattie' on which Sri Lanka rattled up 554 to win by an innings.

Head conceded there was little to be gleaned from examining the Test pitch as Australia underwent their main pre-game practice session this morning because its true nature won't be revealed until final curatorial touches are applied tomorrow.

But the Australia brains trust is preparing for a sudden shift in conditions which could involve an equally swift and sweeping alteration in game plans and batting line-up.

"What you're trying to do is line it up to be flexible to help win a Test match," Head said prior to training today in confirming he has not been told where he'll bat within Australia's top order.

"So if that means being more flexible on day one, what's not to say in the second innings when it does turn and gets extreme that the order may change.

"It's been a topic of conversation the last little bit in this team.

"Why doesn't the order change, why can't we be flexible, where can we win a Test match?

"What moves, how can we be brave?

"I think people are open to it, and the game's evolving.

"I don't think anyone would have seen Sam Konstas lapping in the first session of a Test match (in his Boxing Day debut), so why not see where we can make jumps and leads and where can we perhaps get an advantage.

"And if that's using people in different positions – that's not traditionally done a helluva lot … We haven't done it yet, but does this tour lend itself to that.

"I think this team's experienced enough to be in a great position where players would be open to that if it needed to be."

Even though this two-Test series for the Warne-Muralidaran Trophy, which Australia currently hold after the previous campaign also played entirely in Galle ended in a 1-1 draw, Head points out a bulk of the 16-man squad is experienced in Asian conditions.

As such, they understand they will face a full-on Sri Lanka spin attack led by left-arm orthodox tweaker Prabath Jayasuriya who boasts an extraordinary strike rate in the southern coastal city.

But Head believes there is sufficient knowledge in Australia's group being led by Steve Smith in the absence of Pat Cummins to enact the unorthodox ploy which has rarely before been adopted at Test level.

"I guess if you're a little more inexperienced or just trying to search for a style, you probably don't go down that avenue," Head, Smith's deputy for this tour, said today.

"That's probably why there's been some conversation around because the team has been together for a long period of time.

"The game is moving and especially in these conditions, you need to be brave, you need to make some big calls and whether that be in your game plan and the way you play, or whether that be the strategy around how you're going to win a Test match.

"it's not always going to work.

"Some bowling changes never work so who's to say a batting change may work or may not work, but I think we're open to it as a team."

Speculation that Head might move from his traditional role in the middle-order to partner Usman Khawaja as opener stems from him filling that role in India two years after David Warner was forced to return home with an arm injury.

Head admits he had struggled to find a game plan that worked for him on Asian pitches prior to that 2023 series, having failed to land a big score in his preceding two subcontinent trips to Pakistan and Sri Lanka (both in 2022).

He took a more relaxed mindset into his elevation to opening in India having missed selection in the starting XI for the first Test of that Border-Gavaskar Trophy campaign and duly recorded scores of 43, 9, 49no, 32 and 90 against the new ball.

It showed the sort of flexibility in roles within the team Australia is mulling whereby the first-wicket combination deployed at the start of a Test in Galle might be changed as conditions vary for the second innings.

"That (2023) Indian series was one which could have gone one way or the other," Head said of their 1-2 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series defeat.

"I don’t play well, and I probably never see a subcontinent tour again.

"Or I go out there and do what I’ve been doing the last couple of years, go out there a little bit more relaxed and not be worried about what the outcome might be.

"So I’ll draw on that here and go out open-minded and relaxed, to I make sure play well the next couple of Tests and hope to do a job.

"I feel comfortable wherever I need to be to win the Test.

"I'm not bothered where I bat anymore.

"I haven’t been for a while and all I’m worried about is Ron (coach Andrew McDonald) and now Steve (Smith, stand-in skipper) want me and think I can do a job."

Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka

Australia Test squad: Steve Smith (c), Sean Abbott, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Travis Head (vc), Josh Inglis, Usman Khawaja, Sam Konstas, Matt Kuhnemann, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Nathan McSweeney, Todd Murphy, Mitchell Starc, Beau Webster

First Test: January 29-February 2, Galle (3.30pm AEDT)

Second Test: February 6-10, Galle (3.30pm AEDT)

First ODI: February 12, Colombo (3.30pm AEDT)

Second ODI: February 14, Colombo (3.30pm AEDT)