Forget the bouncers and just bat, says Jayasuriya

First-change bowler Michael Kasprowicz, who claimed 7-39 in Sri Lanka’s second innings of 162 in Darwin, inspected the Cairns pitch today and predicted a bouncy strip with plenty of carry behind the wicket.

“A bit of bounce will be nice. Last year it had a bit of bounce in it (against Bangladesh) and if you’ve got good consistent bounce and you’re hitting the deck hard you do get something out of it,” Kasprowicz said.

Talk of a short-pitched attack from Australia’s giant pace trio, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie and Kasprowicz, does not concern Jayasuriya, who will be padding up for his 90th Test appearance on Friday. “We are quite used to (short-pitched bowling) and we don’t have to worry about those things, that’s part of the game, we just have to play our natural game,” Jayasuriya told reporters.

“It looks a good wicket and we have to be more positive. There’s nothing to worry about the wicket as long as we do our own thing and we just go out and bat,” Jayasuriya said.

The opener, who had scores of 8 and 16 in Darwin and ran out batting partner Kumar Sangakkara for a duck in a crucial second innings dismissal, said Sri Lanka must look at building batting partnerships.