Sri Lanka vs Australia quick hits: Ricky Ponting unhappy with Sam Konstas's axing as Steve Smith and Travis Head benefit from blunders

Sam Konstas's was questioned by a legend as Travis Head, Usman Khawaja and Travis Head were all beneficiaries of Sri Lankan blunders.

Here are the quick hits from day one of the first Test in Galle.

1. Ponting not happy with Konstas axing

Sam Konstas speaks to batting coach Michael Di Venuto in Sri Lanka. (Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)

In November, Nathan McSweeney was the hot new young Australian opener. By Boxing Day, selectors had unwrapped Sam Konstas and immediately didn't want to play with any other toys. By late January, he was out in favour of Josh Inglis by way of Travis Head.

The 19-year-old Konstas took his horses-for-courses axing in stride, with selector Tony Dodemaide says he told him: "No stress. I get it."

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Former captain Ricky Ponting was less understanding, saying he thought Konstas "had to play".

"I don't like it, to be honest," he said on Channel Seven.

He said he expected Konstas to be recalled for the Ashes at the end of the year and he should be getting in as many Test reps as possible.

"Here is a missed opportunity for Australia to get to know more about Sam Konstas," he said.

"If he is the player we all think he is, I would have loved to have seen him work out a way to play spin over the next few weeks."

2. Sri Lanka forgets to use reviews twice

In the fourth over of the first innings of the first Test, there were already warning signs for Sri Lanka.

After his elevation to open, Travis Head was flying with five boundaries off his first 13 balls when Asitha Fernando rapped him on the pads and took off in a vigorous appeal.

But captain Dhananjaya de Silva and wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis talked him out of a review, presumably saying the ball pitched outside leg stump.

But replays a few minutes later showed the ball pitching in line with leg and destroying middle and off, three-quarters of the way up.

It cost them 34 runs and a lot of momentum on the first morning.

You would have thought Dhananjaya would be more judicious with his reviews after this, but unbelievably he messed it up again.

The Sri Lankans had an almighty caught behind appeal in the middle session after Prabath Jayasuriya got one past Usman Khawaja's bat.

Dhananjaya motioned that the noise as the ball passed the bat had come due to Khawaja's bat hitting his pad.

Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, replays next over showed that while Khawaja had struck the pad with his bat, the ball had also caught the edge.

3. Steve Smith brings up 5,000 Test runs away from home

There was plenty to celebrate about Steve Smith on day one in Galle.

He brought up his 10,000th Test run off the first ball he faced, becoming just the 15th player to achieve the feat.

A milestone that some may have missed was Smith bringing up his 5,000th Test run away from home.

One of the great abilities of Steve Smith is scoring in all conditions around the world.

Australia's Steve Smith brought up multiple career milestones in the first innings against Sri Lanka in Galle. (AP: Eranga Jayawardena)

He needed 14 runs to pass the 5,000-run mark away from home, which he comfortably surpassed with a first innings knock of XX.

Heading into the first Test at Galle, Smith had an average of 52.48 away from home.

Most of his runs overseas come in England, where he has amassed 2,255 runs at an average of 55.

He has 805 runs in India from 19 innings at an average of 50.31.

4. Fielders drop chance after chance

It is the age-old cricket saying — "catches win matches".

If you go by that, then Sri Lanka is no chance of winning this Test because of a staggering amount of spills in the field.

Khawaja was dropped by Dhananjaya in the slips before he'd reached a half-century off the bowling of Jayasuriya.

The second chance of the day also came off Jayasuriya's bowling, except this time the bowler himself was the culprit.

Smith was on one when he hit an attempted straight drive in the air right back to Jayasuriya, only for the spinner to fumble the chance. He threw the ball into the pitch afterwards in frustration.

Sri Lankan keeper Kusal Mendis dropped Khawaja for the second time in the innings. (AP Photo: Eranga Jayawardena)

Khawaja was dropped a second time in the middle session, this time in the 90s.

Jeffrey Vandersay got a ball to spin back viciously at Khawaja, and the left-hander only succeeded in edging it into his thigh pad.

The ball ballooned up for what seemed like an eternity, but incredibly landed safely as it floated over wicketkeeper Kusal Mendis's head.

To make matters even worse for Sri Lanka, there was also the missed run out opportunity off Marnus Labuschagne, although that didn't prove to be as costly as the misses of Smith and Khawaja.

5. Sri Lanka scolded by umpire over dour tactics

Sri Lanka came out after the tea break lost for answers and turned to some negative cricket.

After struggling to keep the Aussies tied down throughout the day, Sri Lanka's spinners resorted to bowling wide outside leg stump for the majority of the final session.

The tactic worked to an extent in causing Australia's run rate to drop ever so slightly during the final session, but it did not yield a wicket.

Steve Smith was able to use his right pad more frequently than his bat during a dour stretch of play in the final session. (Getty Images: Buddhika Weerasinghe)

There were farcical scenes when the Sri Lankan fielders in close even appealed for an lbw decision to go their way on a ball that pitched and struck Steve Smith outside leg stump.

The tactics were so poor that umpire Chris Gaffaney was forced to step in during the final session.

Gaffaney had a word to the Sri Lankans over their negative line, and caused them to shift back to a somewhat more attacking line.

The result? Another flurry of runs in the back end of the final session as Australia's batters grinded the home side into the turf.

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