The Australian cricketers have started their month-long tour of Sri Lanka in promising form, continuing their blistering run of form from their summer back home. Whilst it's still early on in their Sri Lankan campaign the Australians have showed superb maturity and early promising form in just the three one-dayers completed in the first week of their tour.
This tour is believed to be Australia's most challenging, apart from the Indian away series, in which Australia have failed to cement a test match series win in a number of years now. There is no doubt Australia have struggled in the sub-continent and their records in that part of the world are proof of the difficulties they continually face.
However, are the first three one-dayers an indication that Australia are now mentally and physically more suited to playing on sub-continent pitches, against quality line-ups? Time will only tell, but it has to be said that the current Australian outfit looks better than any previous squad which has ventured onto Sri Lankan soil on the past. While the series is poised at 2-1 with two matches left and despite Sri Lanka winning the second game, the Australians look the better team at the moment. The Sri Lankan win was anything but convincing and was largely due to the bowling efforts of Sri Lankan paceman Chaminda Vaas. Apart from that game (and Vaas's performance) the Sri Lankans have failed to deliver much of what was expected at the start of the series - that being highly entertaining, quality-skilled cricket, which is what the team is known for especially at home. The main concerns for the home side is their top order. The fact that the Australian bowlers have dominated the Sri Lankan batting line-up, with the exception of Jayawardene and Sangakkara, is a clear worry from Sri Lanka's point of view.
However, while Muralitharan hasn't caused Australia too many headaches as yet, he and Chaminda Vaas look in extremely good form. The Australian batting has so far performed superbly, especially considering they only had the one warm-up match before the series commenced. Ponting, Martyn and Symonds in particular look to be in good touch and it's only a matter of time till the likes of Hayden, Gilchrist and Bevan start performing at their usual standard.
With the two remaining matches to be played this weekend cricket fans are in for a great few days of one-day cricket, especially if it continues to be played with the same outstanding quality shown in the first week of the Sri Lankan series.
