Australian batting has panicked under pressure says Gillespie

Former Australian paceman Jason Gillespie believes Australia’s current batting malaise against Sri Lanka is a mental issue and that they are panicking under pressure.Gillespie also said the visitors are not ‘not as bad’ as their batting performance suggests after the first two encounters.

"In my opinion, they haven't played to their potential against the Sri Lankan spinners because they're not as bad as what they've shown there (in the first two Tests)," Gillespie told cricket.com.au. "It just looks like they've just panicked a little bit and all of a sudden abandoned all their game plans on how to face the Sri Lankan spinners in the face when a bit of pressure has been put on."

Going into the tour it was reported that Australia have taken extensive preparation but once they were inside the field of play, very few things actually worked for them. Coach Darren Lehmann and chief selector Rodney Marsh have already conceded they do not know of better ways to turn things around. However, Gillespie says Australia should keep on trusting their game-plan.

"It looks to me that they've have had a game-plan but once there was a bit of pressure on, they've changed their plans or didn't trust their plans against the spinners, so they changed them,” said the 41-year-old. "For me, I think they need to trust themselves, back themselves, back their skills and the training they've done. It's been widely acknowledged that they've prepared well for this tour and so they should trust that and believe in that. You don't lose your skills overnight. They are very good players."

Gillespie also had his own share of advice for the Aussie batsmen too. "Your contact points against spin are really important. You've either get right out there before it spins or you get back and let the ball finish spinning. The key on the subcontinent is to either get right forward or get right back.”

“You need to go with a real positive attitude – that doesn't mean going out there slogging and trying to hit every ball for six – it means having good intent to play each ball on its merits. If (Australia) do that, they'll account for themselves much better than they have. "They're much better players than they've shown on this tour so far, they are far better. But they have to trust that and believe that. They have to be clear with how they're tackling the Sri Lankan slow bowlers.