Australia in Sri Lanka: Recap first Test’s opening day in Galle as Josh Inglis debuts

The decision to drop Konstas to let Head open has certainly been divisive amongst fans but selector Tony Dodemaide has explained the decision.

The decision to move him to open looks like a masterstroke.

Head bunts a single to bring up his 50 off just 35 balls.

It’s been a brutal assault with nine fours and one six. Australia going at more than six an over.

66 runs from the first 10 overs of the Test!

Travis Head doing the lion’s share but Khawaja has shown excellent use off the feet to launch a couple of blows down the ground.

Sri Lanka looking a touch rattled by this start

Peiris catches Head’s pad before bat and Chandimel reviews.

But it’s outside the line and makes their missed chance earlier look worse.

He rocks back and crashes four off Jayasuriya the next over.

This was the one they missed....

He’s 23 off 13 with five fours.

Fernando copping the tap unable to find his line or length with 28 runs off his three overs so far.

He lands a good ball off the last and there’s an LBW shout against Head but looked pitching outside leg.

I TAKE THAT BACK. Ball tracking shows it did land in line and would’ve smashed middle stump that could be a huge let off.

AUS 0/32

Spin from the other end with Nishan Peiris to bowl his off-breaks.

Khawaja is sitting deep in the crease and works a single off the last ball.

Usman Khawaja to take strike.

Asitha Fernando opens the bowling, wonder how long he’ll last before spin comes on.

He’s off-strike with a bit of a leading edge to mid-on.

FOUR. Head gets one on the hip and he’s not going to miss out on that whipping it to square leg.

FOUR MORE. Short wide and Head crashes it forward of point for another boundary.

ANOTHER ONE. It’s off the outside edge but soft hands sees it fall short of gully and race to the boundary.

13 off the first over!

Australia XI: 1 Usman Khawaja 2 Travis Head 3 Marnus Labuschagne 4 Steven Smith (capt.) 5 Josh Inglis 6 Beau Webster 7 Alex Carey (wk) 8 Mitchell Starc 9 Mathew Kuhnemann 10 Nathan Lyon 11 Todd Murphy

Sri Lanka XI: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Oshada Fernando, 3 Dinesh Chandimal, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Kamindu Mendis, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt.), 7 Kusal Mendis (wk), 8 Prabath Jayasuriya, 9 Nishan Peiris, 10 Jeffrey Vandersay 11 Asitha Fernando

The former Aussie captain believes they should have backed Konstas in.

“I don’t like it, to be honest. I have done a few radio interviews during the week leading up to this series, and I just expected that Konstas would play and would open the batting,” he says on 7.

“In two test matches time they are playing in the World Test Championship in England and Konstas will be straight back into the side then if he doesn’t play here tonight.

We have seen Travis Head open the batting in the sub-continent before and he did very well. No doubt he will look to get Australia off to a flyer and almost bat like he would in one-day mode, but I think there is a real missed opportunity for the Australians here to get to learn a bit more about Sam Konstas.

“If he is the player we all think he is, I would have loved to have seen him work out a way to play spin in tough conditions in Sri Lanka over the next couple of weeks.”

Smith calls correctly and Australia will bat and confirms Inglis debut.

“I’m unsure how it’s going to play it looks a bit tacky,” he says.

“We got to adapt accordingly, hopefully I can tick [10,000] off quickly.”