So how competitive will Sri Lanka be over this three-Test series?

As the sporting public of Melbourne and Sydney mull over whether to part with their hard-earned for tickets on Boxing Day or at the New Year Test, will Mahela Jayawardene’s men live up to their top billing?

Certainly they’ve shown signs in Hobart that they’re not here to be sacrificial lambs.

Their pace attack looked far from menacing but did have Australia at a crossroads at 4-198 during day one.

Their batting fell well short of Australia’s 5(dec)-450 but wasn’t disgraced in making 336, albeit against an injury-depleted attack.

A breakthrough century on Australian soil to veteran opener Tillakaratne Dilshan and a highest-ever partnership down under between Dilshan and rising star Angelo Mathews showed more positive signs.

Big guns Kumar Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera are unlikely to all miss out again.

Asked about the conditions at Bellerive during the match, Lankan coach Graham Ford said he’d expected them to be the toughest of the series.

At the MCG and SCG he expects his side to feel more at home.

By extension, he expects them to do better than their respectable showing in Hobart.

Both wickets are more conducive to spin and, in Rangana Herath, Sri Lanka have one of the best.

Herath is only behind England tweaker Graeme Swann in a race to be the world’s leading wicket-taker in Tests this calendar year.

Swann is currently playing his last Test of the year in India so Herath must be favoured to take the mantle.

His battle with Nathan Lyon should be absorbing, and could well be telling.

Lyon’s battle with the spin-hardened Sri Lankan batsmen will mark another step in his fast-developing career.

Australia deserve favouritism but Sri Lanka deserve to be there on cricket’s big days.