Send for the spin doctors

On the evening before Australia start their eagerly awaited three-Test series in Sri Lanka, there were two main talking points in Galle. The big philosophical one is whether, after an unexpected drawn series against India in January, the first cracks have appeared in Australia's cricketing empire. The more immediate one is the biscuit-dry, mosaic of a pitch at Galle's International Stadium. The cracks in that are a bit more obvious.

The wicket is the only patch of baked brown in an otherwise lush outfield and square. From the press box, it is like looking at an oasis in reverse. Baked by the fierce south Sri Lankan sun and dried by the breeze off the nearby Indian Ocean, the pitch does not have a blade of live grass to hold it together.

"It will certainly turn, virtually from ball one," said John Buchanan, Australia's coach, at the ground on Saturday. "There is a question as to how long it will actually last." In truth there's not much question at all: this pitch will break up quickly and favour the spinners.

Sri Lanka will play just one seamer - Chaminda Vaas - and pack their attack with slow bowlers. Tillakaratne Dilshan will probably share the new ball - he bowls quickish offbreaks - with back-up from legspinner Upul Chandana, another brisk offspinner in Kumar Dharmasena, and the slow left-armer Sanath Jayasuriya. Their seventh batsman, Thilan Samaraweera, also bowls offbreaks, when he can get a look-in. And then there's Muttiah Muralitharan, who took 7 for 46 here against England in December, on a pitch less favourable to slow bowlers than this one.

"We are not scared of fast bowlers, but we are playing to our home advantage," said Hashan Tillakaratne, Sri Lanka's captain, on Sunday. "We want to give our bowlers the best wickets they could bowl on."

For Australia, Shane Warne, who has now served his 12-month drug ban, will return at the very first opportunity. (Ordinarily, players are made to battle to regain the baggy green, but Warne is no ordinary bowler.) Warne's fellow legspinner, Stuart MacGill, also looks set to play.

Brett Lee's ankle had not recovered enough for him to train on the eve of the match. So Michael Kasprowicz, who can reverse-swing the ball on dry wickets, is set to open the bowling with Jason Gillespie. It's almost three years since Kasprowicz, 32, last played a Test - in India's sensational VVS Laxman-inspired comeback at Kolkata in 2000-01. By Australian standards this is not a strong attack, and Ricky Ponting, whose debut as Test captain has almost been overlooked, will probably have to summon up some Stephen Fleming-like inventiveness in the field.

Andrew Symonds will make his debut, batting at No. 6 and filling in a few overs (he can bowl either medium-pace or flattish offspin). That is tough on Simon Katich, who made a hundred in Australia's only warm-up game, and another in their last Test. Of course there is no Steve Waugh. Still, the local Sunday Leader's claim today that Australia have a huge vacuum in the middle order seems a touch optimistic.

The evening before the match, Sri Lanka were leaving no part of their spin-based game plan to chance. Locally they say cricket always brings rain at Galle, and as evening fell, tarpaulins were placed not only over the controversial square but also on almost every inch of the outfield. The match is scheduled to start at 0430 GMT.

Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Marvan Atapattu, 2 Sanath Jayasuriya, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Hashan Tillakaratne (capt), 7 Thilan Samaraweera, 8 Upul Chandana, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Kumar Dharmasena, 11 Muttiah Muralitharan.

Australia (probable): 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Justin Langer, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Damien Martyn, 5 Darren Lehmann, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Michael Kasprowicz, 10 Jason Gillespie, 11 Stuart MacGill.