Australia Test stars have point to prove

Australia captain Steve Smith admits the team has its work cut out after their 3-0 Test series loss to Sri Lanka, but says it’ll be a different ball game on home soil against South Africa.
Smith and his colleagues pull on their pads Tuesday for day-night Sheffield Shield domestic games with several players needing to impress before the first Test against the Proteas starts in Perth on November 3.
Former Australia captain Mark Taylor recently claimed only five members of the current Test side, which went down 3-0 in Sri Lanka in September, were assured of their places.
They included Smith, David Warner, Peter Nevill, Mitchell Starc, and Josh Hazlewood.
The skipper admitted that Australia’s latest performances had been poor, with the one-day team whitewashed 5-0 by South Africa following the Sri Lanka hammering.
“Results haven’t gone our way in the last couple of months but that’s the game of cricket sometimes,” he said in comments published by The Australian Tuesday.
“You have to move on and try and improve. I was disappointed with the way we played in Sri Lanka. We probably let a few opportunities slip so we’ve got to move forward and try to improve in those conditions. There’s a lot of work to do there.”
But Smith, himself under the microscope after Australian great Steve Waugh said his captaincy would be closely monitored in the summer Test series against South Africa and Pakistan, insisted it would be different on Australian soil.
“I’m comfortable with where we’re at back in Australia. We’ve played good cricket here in the past and hopefully we can continue to do that this summer.”