Sri Lanka defend bowling plans against Australia

Sri Lanka have defended their bowling plans after a nightmare first two days of the Test series opener against Australia in Galle.

Usman Khawaja (232), Steve Smith (141) and Josh Inglis (102) all blasted their way to centuries as Australia (6d-654) posted their largest total for any Test innings on the subcontinent on Thursday.

The Australian batting order used the reverse sweep to damaging effect, especially Khawaja, as Sri Lanka struggled to turn ample chances into wickets on day one.

Spinners Prabath Jayasuriya (3-193), Jeffrey Vandersay (3-182) and Nishan Peiris (0-189) struggled for speed and consistency.

Rubbing salt into the wound, Australia had three wickets inside an hour of the hosts' daunting first innings reply on day two.

It took 99.5 overs for Sri Lanka to take as many, with Vandersay admitting the pitch had not deteriorated dramatically in the final session before Australia took the ball.

"You don't see a big difference because it was like half an hour or 45 minutes before that they were batting," he said.

"I don't think the surface changed much, they were bowling a better line or maybe a bit quicker. That's what I see as a difference."

The hosts' front-line paceman Asitha Fernando does not bowl as rapidly as Australian left-armer Mitch Starc (1-10), who had immediate impact with the new ball.

But Vandersay insisted the Sri Lankan bowling attack did try to put pace on the ball as the Australians went on to do in their pursuit of wickets.

"We tried," he said.

"It's not that we didn't, we spoke about it but I gave the credit to them, how they batted."

Sri Lanka managed to stem the flow of runs in the third session on day one by bowling around the wicket and targeting leg stump.

But Sri Lanka stubbornly stuck to the same four bowlers even as they struggled for breakthrough wickets.

In humid conditions, off-spinner Prabath Jayasuriya bowled 60 overs - the equal 13th most by a Sri Lankan bowler in any Test innings.

Captain Dhananjaya De Silva has taken 40 Test wickets, including a three-wicket haul in Galle against New Zealand in September, but played in the slips throughout.

Ambidextrous Kamindu Mendis had a three-wicket haul in Bangladesh last year and could have provided a second left-arm off-spin option next to Jayasuriya.

"There was (discussion about playing more bowlers)," Vandersay said.

"But we thought we should go with the four bowlers that we backed to play this game and somehow get the wickets from them.

"That was a general plan."

Vandersay would not be drawn on their bowling plans for the second Test, with Australia a chance to avoid batting again in the first match by enforcing the follow-on.

"We've got to focus on not thinking about follow-on or thinking about the next match because it's still the second day," Vandersay said.

"We need to bat long, we need to play our brand of cricket and play as much as we can tomorrow."