Form counts ahead of India tour: Australia coach

Coach Darren Lehmann knows it would be far from unprecedented for a player to earn Test selection based on performances in limited-overs Cricket.

According to cricket.com.au, Australia’s two-month tour of Sri Lanka coming to a close on Friday, Cricket Australia will conduct a standard post-tour review of the team’s performances, which included a 3-0 Test defeat as well as victories in six out of seven white-ball matches. Lehmann has credited the arrival of Australia’s limited-overs players in Sri Lanka with helping to turn the side’s fortunes around, with several players who arrived after the Tests performing with distinction in the shortened formats.

While Australia’s next Test assignment will come at home this summer, they also have one eye on their return to the subcontinent early next year for a four-Test series against India. And Lehmann said selectors take note of players who have proved themselves at international level, even if it is in white-ball cricket. “We’ve certainly done that before when George Bailey played really well in India and got picked in the Ashes home series a few years back,” the coach said of the Tasmanian’s Test elevation in the summer of 2013-14, which came after a superb ODI series against India.

“The way (the limited-overs team has) played has been exceptional. That’s all you can do — put your name up in lights (from) the way you play in the one-day format.

“All performances for Australia count and that’s really important.” Bailey was named player of the one-day series with a leading average of 67, while Zampa bowled consistently well in the middle of the innings, finishing the five-match series with nine wickets. Maxwell scored a career-best 145 not out in the first T20 as Australia reached a world record 263/3.