Warne back into the groove

Shane Warne: it's good to be back © Getty Images

Forget the figures - 32-4-103-2 if you ask. Today at Galle, Shane Warne bowled as if he'd never been away, that is to say with accuracy and unceasing determination. It would be tempting to say he bounced back, if it wasn't for the fact that bounce - or lack of it - was most of his problem.

Warne offered control not conjuring tricks. Nor did that big, powerful legbreak, that disappeared after his shoulder operation in 1998, reappear.

Like in the Ashes 14 months ago, he generally hit a handkerchief-sized patch of this cracked but slow pitch. Stuart MacGill's target area was closer to the size of a doormat.

As before his enforced break, Warne's drift in the air made him fiendishly difficult to sweep (again unlike MacGill). He began by going for a stingy 2.5 an over, before leaking a few more against Tillakaratne Dilshan, a batsman in sublime touch.

And as before, no rabbits were pulled from hats. A promised new delivery - a "handy little something I've been working on" - looked very much like one that did nothing at all. Still, it was good enough to get Sanath Jayasuriya leg-before on Monday night.

And just as the opposition looked to be getting a true hold on the match, with Dilshan and Hashan Tillakaratne grinding Australia into the ground, he took a wicket. Despite getting only that one victim today, it was still legspin bowling that compared pretty well with anything, perhaps with the exception of Warne himself in the mid 1990s.

Contrary to the view that Asian pitches are A Good Thing For Spinners, this is not Warne's natural habitat. He thrives on bounce. His bowling average is nearly nine more on Asian pitches than elsewhere - disregarding, that is, a series in October 2002, of which Steve Waugh later said Pakistan's kamikaze batting was worse than Bangladesh's. Even including that travesty, Warne's figures remain better elsewhere.

It has been fascinating to watch Warne, and that other great wicket-hunter, Muttiah Muralitharan, pursue their quarry over the past two days. Picture Warne today, and Murali yesterday. Warne, like the fly fisherman, tossing bait down the line, in a languid, almost mesmerising arc. He invites the aggression that undoes itself. Murali, by contrast, hurries and harries. The flight is flatter and faster; the time for the batsman to fashion a reply (rather than a gut reaction) less. Murali is to spin bowling what the relentless, harrying hound is to hunting.

As a slow bowler even among slow bowlers, Warne has not found bounce here. It hits the pitch and begins to die. Murali's greater pace presented a greater threat.

Andrew Symonds, who made his debut yesterday and bowled muscular, energetic offspin, could be a good bowler on these wickets. But, lithe athlete that he is, it's not clear that a man with a first-class bowling average of over 37 is good enough for Tests.

Today was perhaps a glimpse into Australia's cricketing future. In the morning they gave everything. They bowled their three best bowlers (Jason Gillespie, Michael Kasprowicz and Warne) for long spells, with little reward: the attack doesn't have the same edge as while they were blazing across the world, winning 16 Tests in succession. It seems unlikely they will dominate to that awesome extent again.

But in the afternoon, the bowlers did not fade, the fielders worked like Trojans and the team took wickets through sweat. That is why they will remain terribly hard to beat.

Paul Coupar, the assistant editor of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, will be following Australia in their Test series in Sri Lanka.