Darren Lehmann lambasts Australia for poor showing in Sri Lanka

Faced with the prospect of yet another embarrassing defeat and the series going out of their hands, Australia’s head coach Darren Lehmann lambasted his side for what he described as a performance not befitting international standards. The visitors, who have lost their last 7 Tests in Asia, are 388 runs adrift from victory in the second Test at the Galle but have already lost three wickets in just 6 overs of play in the second innings before the close of play on Day 2 in which a whopping 21 wickets fell.

Having arrived in the island nation two weeks prior to the commencement of the first Test at Kandy, Lehmann said that the players had been given the best preparations possible to set straight their abysmal record in the subcontinent pitches but the former Australian cricketer has been extremely disappointed by what he has seen so far on the tour, especially on Friday.

From a decent start of 50/1 in the first innings, Steven Smith’s side collapsed to 106 all out with Sri Lanka’s veteran spinner Rengana Herath picking up a hat-trick. With the hosts managing more than double those runs on a pitch that was proving hellish for the batsmen, Australia were left with a huge target of 413 and their poor start in the second innings means Angelo Mathews’ men could well wrap up the series here itself.

Our performance not up to international standard: Lehmann

More than the expected loss, it is the manner in which his side has failed to put up a fight that has irked Lehmann.

“It’s disappointing, the way we played. Not up to international standard, on that performance today,” Lehmann said. “We’ve made some poor decisions against some good bowling. We’ve got to be better than that if you want to succeed in these conditions. We certainly haven’t been up to standard so far.”

“I can’t complain about the preparation from the lads and the work ethic. It gets down to the pressure in the middle of a Test match and being able to cope with it. We’ve talked a good game in the media and in the press, how we want to play, but we’re certainly not showing up at the moment,” he added.

Lehmann was particularly miffed with the performances of a few Australian batsmen and the team’s lead spinner Nathan Lyon who, rather surprisingly, continues to struggle in the spin-friendly pitches in the subcontinent, in comparison to his performances in the pacer-friendly conditions of England and Australia.

“Certainly some blokes have got to have a look at themselves, how they want to go about it in these conditions,” Lehmann said. “Nathan Lyon’s experience has been very good for us over a period of time but his record in the subcontinent is not great. He has to improve. Holland is playing his first game so he’s going to be a little bit nervous so give him a little bit of lee-way there.”