InMobi

Swampy's strike rate caps off Inglis's dream debut

Josh Inglis unfurled fleet footwork against spin to sweep and reverse-sweep his way to a memorable century on Test debut in Galle

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      Sri Lanka v Australia | First Test | Day Two

      While Josh Inglis's parents Martin and Sarah were shedding tears and blowing kisses from an elevated viewing room at Galle Stadium as their son seized his moment, two floors immediately below another influential figure in the debutant's journey was quietly beaming.

      Geoff Marsh might only have become a fixture in Inglis's cricket development when the pair crossed paths in Perth almost a decade ago, with Marsh coaching Western Australia's Second XI academy and Inglis not-long-arrived from the UK with his family.

      But the pair have built a close bond, and Inglis was thrilled when Marsh – a former Test opener, and World Cup-winning Australia coach – presented Baggy Green cap number 470 to his fellow West Australian at Galle on Wednesday.

      It's a ceremonial honour Marsh has fulfilled twice before; when his sons – Shaun (2011 in Sri Lanka) and Mitchell (2014 in Dubai) – won Test selection, and he felt he was welcoming another member of his broader family into the Baggy Green club this week.

      That link partly explained Marsh's widening grin as he watched Inglis sweep, cut, drive and reverse sweep his way to a memorable hundred off just 90 deliveries in his maiden outing as a Test player yesterday.

      However, 'Swampy' (as Marsh has been known to the global cricket fraternity for four decades) took even greater pride from the statistical nugget he unearthed as Inglis entered the 80s on his barnstorming way to triple figures.

      "I don't want to jinx him, but if he gets there it means the past four to get a Test hundred on debut for Australia have all been Western Australians," Marsh told cricket.com.au from among the supporters' tour group he's leading in Sri Lanka with fellow ex-Test player Steve O'Keefe.

      "I've just looked it up."

      Inglis went on to complete that lauded quartet, joining Adam Voges (against West Indies at Dominica in 2015), Shaun Marsh (Sri Lanka in 2011) and Marcus North (South Africa in 2009) as well as 12 other Australians with Test hundreds at the first attempt.

      A further five have managed it in the second innings of their debut match.

      What Marsh didn't dwell upon was his strike rate in presenting caps to two of that now-famous four, a fact that was pointed out to Inglis by teammate Travis Head after the 29-year-old had been dismissed for 102 (off 94 balls) today.

      "I think Mitch (Marsh) missed out (on a debut hundred after his dad handed him his cap), but I was super-pumped to have Swamp do my cap presentation," Inglis said after play yesterday with Sri Lanka 3-44 in reply to Australia's vast 6(dec)-654.

      "I've obviously known him a long time and I've learned a lot from him over the years, so it was really nice to have him do that."

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        Inglis becomes Test cap No.470 after Marsh's heartfelt presentation

        In joining that select group that began with another English-born Australia representative Charles Bannerman in the very first Test match in 1877, Inglis also became just the third to achieve the milestone on the subcontinent.

        The previous player to claim that even rarer honour was Shaun Marsh with his 141 against Sri Lanka 14 years ago, and if 'Swampy' had been on-hand for Michael Clarke's famous debut ton at Bengaluru in 2004 he could have borne witness to the trifecta.

        The other common trait that trio share is a highly developed capacity to play spin bowling, and it was one of the elements of Inglis's game yesterday that so delighted Geoff Marsh as he watched on.

        "When you see his batting graph, he gets right down (the pitch) to the spinners but also right back to the spinners," Marsh told cricket.com.au today.

        "The great thing about him is the way he moves his feet and gets into position.

        "And the courage he has to play his shots.

        "I mean that first ball today to get off the mark with a boundary (whipping leg spinner Jeffrey Vandersay through the leg side against the turn), what a great shot that was – unbelievable.

        "That's typical of the guy, he's on the attack all the time.

        "Josh tries to score off every ball, his sweeping and his reverse sweeping, his array of shots against spinners puts so much the pressure back on to the bowler.

        "And we've known that in Western Australia.

        "When we go to Sydney where it has spun a bit over the years, you'll always see him up the order."

        Inglis acknowledged he relied heavily on his sweep and reverse sweep shots on a slow-turning Galle wicket where Sri Lanka relied on just three spinners – Vandersay, Prabath Jayasuriya and Nishan Peiris – to deliver all-but 15 of their team's 154 overs.

        It's that skillset, which he's displayed in both white-ball formats for Australia including the successful 2023 ODI World Cup campaign in India, that convinced selectors Galle was the place for his debut after he'd been uncapped in Test squads over the past two years.

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            Inglis rockets to dream century on Test debut

            The other hugely appealing aspect of Inglis's batting is his capacity to score quickly because of his 360-degree shot-making ability, as shown with him completing the second-fastest Test hundred on debut after India Shikhar Dhawan's 85-ball effort in 2013.

            The seven first-class tons Inglis has scored since his debut in the format for a Cricket Australia XI in 2015 have come at an average strike rate of 86 per 100 balls faced, with yesterday's an even-more rapid 108.5.

            "I definitely feel like, in this part of the world, when the wickets are spinning you've got to be proactive," Inglis said last night.

            "And the shots you see, with a lot of guys playing sweeps, reverse sweeps, using their feet, you see them in white-ball cricket so I guess the skills are transferable.

            "I just tried to be really proactive and put the bowlers under pressure when I could, and just try and get down the other end.

            "It's the easiest place to be.

            "I felt like if you get stuck down one end for four-to-six balls, you might have a ball with your name on it so really trying to rotate the strike as much as I could."

            Having missed Australia's home T20 World Cup in 2022 after suffering a freak hand injury when a golf club snapped while playing in Sydney, Inglis's Test hopes for Sri Lanka suddenly looked clouded when he copped a calf strain while substitute fielding during last month's Boxing Day Test.

            But the damage proved minor, and instead it granted the 29-year-old a welcome opportunity to spend time at home in Perth with partner Megan and their young son Oscar, during which he was able to work on his batting plans against spin as well as his rehabilitation.

            That was followed by the Australia Test squad's week-long pre-tour training camp in Dubai, which Inglis credits for providing ideal preparation for conditions that awaited the team in Galle.

            If critics were sceptical of the decision to visit the ICC Academy with custom-made practice pitches providing extreme challenges against the spinning ball, then a record first-innings total in the opening Test in Sri Lanka should effectively silence them.

            "The training camp we had in Dubai was really key, just being able to work out (with) everyone having their individual plans and what that looks like," Inglis said.

            "Then it's about doing it and sticking to it for as long as you can, and I think we've seen a lot of guys with clear plans throughout our whole batting innings."

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              Emotional Inglis reflects on dream Test debut

              As he watched Inglis close-in on history, and perhaps reflected on his own contribution to its making, Marsh couldn't help but marvel at the array of strokes modern-day batters such as the keeper-turned-Test century maker all possess.

              Despite his revered role in Australia's renaissance as a world cricket power as opening bat in the 1987 World Cup triumph in India, Marsh was never renowned for his glittering strokeplay and finished his 50 Tests with a strike rate of 35.

              He certainly never unfurled anything like the reverse sweep that Inglis repeatedly pulled out during his debut knock, and knew exactly how his former Australia coach (and avowed traditionalist) Bob Simpson would have reacted if he'd caught sight of one.

              "Simmo would have kicked us out of the nets," the now 66-year-old Marsh laughed.

              "In fact, I ran a camp the other day for 260 kids and I had one of them – who was about eight years old – ask me to show him how to play the (crouching) ramp shot.

              "I couldn't even get down there … and if I did, I doubt I could have got back up again."

              Qantas Tour of Sri Lanka

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

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

              Sri Lanka Test squad: Dhananjaya de Silva (c), Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka (subject to fitness), Oshada Fernando, Lahiru Udara, Dinesh Chandimal, Angelo Mathews, Kamindu Mendis, Kusal Mendis, Sadeera Samarawickrama, Sonal Dinusha, Prabath Jayasuriya, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nishan Peiris, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Milan Rathnayake

              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 ODI: February 12, Colombo (3.30pm AEDT)

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