Australia coach Darren Lehmann speaks about team combination for third Test against Sri Lanka

Australian coach Darren Lehmann has hinted at wholesale changes for the third Test against Sri Lanka, which starts on Saturday at Colombo's Sinhalese Sports Club Ground. Australia have lost the first two Tests and are in danger of being whitewashed at Asia for the third consecutive series.

Australian chief selector Rod Marsh and coach Lehmann will have to make some serious changes as the No.1 ranked Test team lost seven consecutive Tests in Asia after the loss in the second Test. Speaking about the side that might take to the field in the final Test, Lehmann said everyone's place is under scrutiny.

"Well anywhere from one to six (in the batting order), everyone in the squad will be considered," Lehmann said. "That’s what happens when you don’t have the results you would like. We will need to have a look at the wicket (at SSC when the squad trains there on Thursday), sum it up and go from there."

Although Australia's spinners haven't performed as per the expectations, their pacers have certainly delivered. Mitchell Starc has had a fairytale comeback from injury and Josh Hazlewood has been impressive with both the new and old ball.

Speaking about the performance of the bowling attack, he said: "One of the pleasing thing is we’ve managed to get 20 wickets in every game, but we just need to get more runs. All those things to weigh up, selection is going to be tough and tight for this one.”

While it may be easy to drop someone on form, Lehmann was quick to point out that dropping someone isn't always easy.

"You don’t like dropping anyone, you feel for them when they don’t play as well as they would like," he said. "That’s the hardest thing as a coach and a selector, you have to make tough decisions sometimes.”

The Australian coach was also keen to point out that the team that takes to the field against Sri Lanka may not necessarily be the one that plays against South Africa in their home series in November.

"We are playing a Test match in tough conditions, (so we will) pick the best XI for that and then worry about the (Australian) summer when we get home,” Lehman said. “It won’t hold against anyone, this is a squad that we think is right. Obviously results show different and say different, but we have to make sure we are picking the best XI to play (in Sri Lanka).”