Mark Waugh roasts Sri Lanka after woeful opening week in Australia

Australia’s back in the good books after annihilating the first visitors of the summer — and Mark Waugh isn’t at all impressed with the challengers.

The dawn of the summer of cricket left Aussie fans with more than a few reasons to grin, but if the opposition doesn’t pull something out soon, we could be in for an awfully dull, one-sided series.

Sri Lanka were completely blitzed against the home side in Adelaide on Sunday with the Aussies charging home with a 134-run mauling. The hosts then followed up with a nine-wicket thrashing in Brisbane last night.

David Warner, following a horrendous Ashes tour of England earlier in the year, finally found the middle of the bat and blasted his first international century in months before adding an unbeaten 60 at the Gabba.

“Listen, Sri Lanka were absolutely dreadful, they wouldn’t have beaten a club side,” former Aussie batsman and selector Mark Waugh said. “But you can only play who is up against you.

“David Warner looked a bit scratchy early on in that innings but went on to make a hundred, so it’s a good start to the summer for him. That’ll give him a bit of form and confidence even though it’s only white ball (cricket).”

The luxury of a perfect start to the season gives Australia a wealth of opportunity to work on their ideal T20 side ahead of next year’s World Cup.

“They’ll tinker with the side a bit over the six games against Sri Lanka and Pakistan,” Waugh. “It’s the first time we’ve been able to pick from a full squad. I don’t think they’ll tinker too much but I think they’ll rotate the bowlers a bit.”

Finch said the squad’s flexibility, particularly in their middle-order batting, would remain on show for the remainder of the limited overs summer after Glenn Maxwell’s promotion ahead of Steve Smith paid off on Sunday.

And he tipped off-spinning all-rounder Ashton Agar to establish himself as a late-innings finisher with the bat to ensure the side remained well-balanced.

“His batting is still developing and something he’s been working on is becoming that real finisher towards the back-end of an innings in T20 and one-day games,” Finch said of Agar.

“If he can keep developing that then it does give you a lot of options to play that second spinner or go with four quicks, or another all-rounder — it actually just balances the side really well.”

Malinga and his boys are going to need a few hugs this week.