Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja are unlucky: Darren Lehmann

Sri Lanka is leading the 3-match Test series 2-0 against Australia, and thus the World Champions are all set to loose No.1 rank in Test cricket. Having lost the series, Australia were forced to make some changes to their squad in order to bring an end to the poor run in the sub-continent.

They have dropped two of the top-order batsmen, Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja inorder to field better players of spin, into the squad. Shaun Marsh and Moises Henriques have been picked in the XI for the 3rd Test as replacements. However, the Australian coach Darren Lehmann said that the batsmen are ‘unlucky’ to miss out from the playing XI.

“We haven’t had the results we would have liked here in Sri Lanka. We’ve picked a squad we think can play in these conditions. Shaun and ‘Mo’ are very good players of spin bowling. So they come into the side at the expense of Joe who’s unlucky and ‘Uz’ who’s unlucky,” said Lehmann.

Shaun Marsh played his last Test match in 2015 against West Indies at Hobart, where he played his career best knock of 182. “It’s a tough call on those two younger guys but it’s only for this Test match. We’ll have a look going forward at home. It’s different conditions.”

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Speaking about the pitch for the third and final Test match of the series, Lehmann said that the pitch is drier than the first two games. “The way the wicket is, it’s very dry, probably drier than the previous two. Let’s see how they play and hopefully it’s a good Test match” he added.

Australia was completely outplayed in the first two Tests where the ball turned square from Day 1. With the spin specialists coming into the squad, it will be interesting to see how the Australians respond to the Sri Lankan spin trio of Rangana Herath, Dilruwan Perera and Lakshan Sandakan.

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