AUS v SL 2019: Paine urges Australian fast bowlers to bounce out Sri Lanka 

The Warne-Muralitharan Trophy kickstarts on January 24.

They still dread the series defeat against India | Getty

Disappointed with the overall performance and subsequent defeat against India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, skipper Tim Paine has called for a barrage of short-balls from his pace battery to Sri Lankan batsmen during the two-match Test series that begins in Brisbane on Thursday. 

There is anger in the hosts' dressing room ever since Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins have been comprehensively outbowled by Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Ishant Sharma on home shores.

The admirable Paine wouldn't want his team to step on the field with those feelings but he also doesn't mind some balanced aggression on show during the D/N pink-ball encounter. 

"India batted really well. Sub-continent players, when the wickets are good, like the ball being bowled at their stumps and they don't miss too many when they're in the form some of those guys were in," Paine was quoted saying during the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy unveiling ceremony. 

"Look, I would have liked to have been hitting the stumps a little bit more than we were and that's been spoken about."

"But I also felt we didn't use the bouncer as much in that series as we would have liked. Sometimes when you use the bouncer a couple of times an over, when you do pitch it up it's a bit more effective."

Test debuts to batsmen Kurtis Patterson and Will Pucovski and fast bowler Jhye Richardson are on the cards, while Australia hopes to take advantage of the spicy Gabba surface. 

Paine also wants the whole group to start off fresh especially with an extremely challenging away Ashes scheduled in the year ahead. 

"We want to be scoring hundreds, but most of all we want to win the series. We know it's going to be hard, but it starts out here tomorrow and it starts in the first hour -- that's as simple as it is for us. It's really exciting to have a number of young guys in the group," he concluded. 

(Inputs from cricket.com.au)

 
 

By Kashish Chadha - 23 Jan, 2019

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