Haas leads the way for Generation Next
Teenager Payne Haas delivered the world a scary glimpse of his future as Australia’s next generation landed their first blow with a 26-4 dismantling of New Zealand.
Fielding their least experienced Test team in 16 years, the Kangaroos completely outplayed the Kiwis in front of 18,104 fans on Friday night.
The result avenged last year’s shock loss to the Kiwis in Auckland and came with Australia fielding five debutants and just four players from their 2017 World Cup winning side.
Haas was easily the best of the first-timers, dominating the middle with 153 metres in just 13 runs as became Australia’s youngest forward in 28 years.
It comes after the 19-year-old has enjoyed a breakout year at Brisbane, named the NRL’s rookie of the year and making his State of Origin debut for NSW.
Josh Papalii, David Klemmer and rookie Paul Vaughan were also powerful, each running more than the Kiwis’ best middle in Jared Waerea-Hargreaves. Australia had just 94 Tests between them before kick-off to New Zealand’s 186, but that didn’t show on the field.
“It’s scary how good all of our players can be,” Australian coach Mal Meninga said.
“They’re still pretty young. Daly (CherryEvans) is (the oldest at) 31.
They’ve all got plenty of years left in them. That’s the really pleasing part of this whole week and the way we played.
They’re going to be around a long time. “It’s new beginnings when you talk about the Aussie side. We have a lot of new players in our squad. But I still think we’ve got a lot of experience as well.”
Kiwis captain Benji Marshall said: “The harder we tried the worse we got. Trying to throw the ball around.
“They definitely took advantage of the opportunities. We didn’t give ourselves the best opportunity to win that game.”
It capped off a dominant performance, as the Kangaroos got through the match unscathed ahead of next week’s clash with Tonga in Auckland.
Sri Lanka Board President’s XI in Katunayake.
That will be followed by a second warm-up game, this one a four-day first-class fixture, against the same opposition, between 12 and 15 March, at Colombo’s P Sara Oval.
That will be followed by the first Test that begins on March 19 at the old Sri Lankan fortress in Galle, where Sri Lanka have lost just two Tests since 2015, the last defeat, co-incidentally, also coming against England, when they visited these shores in 2018.
The tour will then conclude with the second and final Test at the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in the national capital Colombo.
The series is yet another assignment in an already packed red-ball schedule for England, who are scheduled to play 14 Tests between now and next year’s ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Australia in October-November.
The last time England toured Sri Lanka, in November 2018, they swept a three-Test series. It was the first whitewash they inflicted in a three-Test series in Asian conditions.
Uncapped allrounder Shivam Dube has been drafted into the squad in place of injured Hardik Pandya, while Sanju Samson and leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal have been recalled.
Bangladesh had threatened to call off the tour over a domestic pay dispute, but the national board and players resolved their differences late Wednesday.
The second T20 is on November 7 in Rajkot and the third on November 9 in Nagpur. Kohli, described as the “most important man” in Indian cricket by new board president Sourav Ganguly on Wednesday, will captain the side in the Test series starting November 14 in Indore.
The Test squad is essentially the same that swept South Africa 3-0 in a series that ended this week. That gave India a world record 11th straight home Test series triumph.