Cricket World Cup: Dunith Wellalage test awaits as Australia face Sri Lanka in Lucknow in a battle of win-less teams | Cricket-world-cup News

Ahead of Australia’s clash against Sri Lanka in Lucknow, there were four left-arm spinners who were bowling in tandem to the all-rounder duo of Cameron Green and Sean Abbott in one of the nets, while two were bowling to Alex Carey in the next.The local spinners were making it tough for the Australians with all three batters facing trouble to use their feet. After 20 minutes, batting coach Michael di Venuto pulled Carey out of the nets, who was not able to connect his sweep shots. The duo spent around 10 minutes discussing as di Venuto could be seen telling Carey to use his long levers.
Carey, who is regarded as one of the best players of spin in the Australian squad, was dropped for his team’s second World Cup match against South Africa. The keeper-bat has just one half-century to his name in his last 15 ODIs and has scored just 27 runs in his last four innings. Against South Africa, Josh Inglis was given the responsibility with the gloves.
The fixture on Monday will be played on a different surface than their last match against the Proteas. Pitch No. 5, which has been relaid with red soil, is likely to ass the spinners. In that case, Carey might get his place back because of his ability to play spin better than Inglis.

The red soil pitches usually have a lot of bounce and spinners are always in the game. The Australian cricket team, who are struggling against the spinners, will face a stern test from the Sri Lanka duo of Maheesh Theekshana and Dunith Wellalage.
At Chepauk, it was the Indian trio of R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kuldeep Yadav, who troubled the Australian batting line. Then a couple of days ago, it was Keshav Maharaj and Tabraiz Shamsi.
The number of left-arm spinners at the Australian nets on Sunday was just an indication of whom they are preparing for the most. Sri Lanka’s Dunith Wellalage. The Australian middle-order struggled against Maharaj, with the South African getting rid of Marnus Labuschagne and Glenn Maxwell who were trying to break the shackles. The Australian No 3 chipped one straight to extra cover, while Maxwell, after scoring three of 16 balls, lost patience as a leading edge was caught the bowler.
Wellalage might have gone for the runs in the two games, but the young spinner is certainly not someone who gets intimidated the big names. On a flat Kotla surface, he competed bravely against Rassie van der Dussen, one of three centurions. Van der Dussen kept trying to give the young spinner the charge and Wellalage kept bowling to his length, gave the extra amount of flight, and did find a couple of couple edges.

Former Sri Lanka all-rounder Jehan Mubarak, who had coached Wellalage at the U-19 level, has explained to this newspaper about youngsters’ stomach for the fight.
“Many of them tend to underestimate him his frame and think he can be pushed over. When he is bowling, they try to attack him, and when he is batting, they try to bounce him out. So he is used to that, and he never backs down. He has more maturity for his age and is a fighter to the core. He always wants to do well in tough situations and I’ve seen him do that many times against the school I coached,” Mubarak had told The Indian Express.
“At this level, there is a lot of information being fed in from all quarters, and it varies for each and every team he plays. But, he knows to filter them all and just pick what works for him.”Most Read
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On the red soil pitch, Wellalage could be a big threat for Australia. And with Maheesh Theekshana, who is returning from a hamstring injury will also enjoy bowling in Lucknow. He will feel at home because he is used to bowling on such tracks for Chennai Super Kings at Chepauk in the Indian Premier League. Although Theekshana is completely different from Ashwin, if he can put the run flow under check, Wellalage can have an impact like what Jadeja and Maharaj have had against a right-hand heavy batting line-up of Australia.

With Carey fighting it out against the left-arm spinners, it might be a sign that the southpaw will be included in the team just to nullify the Wellalage threat. But will it be enough for the Australians, who in their last seven ODIs, have won just one game? The lone victory was in a dead rubber in Rajkot against India.
In order to turn their World Cup campaign around, the Australians have to bat out of their skin against the Lankans, who too are looking for a win after losing their first two matches and their captain Dasun Shanaka to an injury.