Glass half-full or in desperate need of a refill?

You can choose your own adventure following Australia’s frolic in the national capital at the expense of a beleaguered and wounded Sri Lanka over the past weekend.

Australian coach Justin Langer has more than a touch of Eric Idle about him following the series victory in Canberra, looking squarely on the bright side of life.

Australian cricket coach Justin Langer has a lot to ponder.  Photo: Getty

“It’s more fun winning than losing. Pat Cummins after the game said, ‘That’s great coach. It’s a 3-2 summer’. So from that point of view, it’s a positive summer. But it’s a good series win. There were some really good things to come out of this series and the whole summer,” Langer said.

Langer was a player who never cut corners and who forged a path to success with an unrelenting work ethic, so you can assume he’s not one for offering a free ride to his players, who thus take him at face value.

Yet, a series win over struggling Sri Lanka can’t mask some of the structural issues that were exposed when the battle was at its fiercest against world No.1 India.

In the four-Test series against Virat Kohli’s men, Australia’s top six averaged a meagre 27 runs per innings, the top order mustering just seven half-centuries between them and not a single one earning the right to “kiss the badge” by making a ton.

In fact, Australian cricket went through its longest dry spell without a century maker – 111 individual Test innings were played between Usman Khawaja’s Test century against Pakistan in October and Joe Burns and Travis Head’s drought-breaking innings against Sri Lanka in Canberra.

Langer is unfazed by the numbers and insists his team’s batting boom is still very much in the construction phase.

“We talk about partnerships, and we had a great partnership in Brisbane and then we had a massive partnership here, and four guys were rewarded,” he said.

“We all know that none of our guys had scored a hundred until this match, and to finish off the summer with a hundred that’s really pleasing. The best way to learn to score hundreds is scoring hundreds in Test cricket.”

Australia’s bowling performance across the summer was mixed with Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon the only two to make an impression. The off-spinner topped the bowling charts with 21 wickets against India and Cummins’ 6-27 in India’s second innings at the MCG and his 14 for the series against Sri Lanka were the standouts.

BREAKTHROUGH! @patcummins30 does the job.

Vihari goes for 8 off 66 balls #AUSvIND pic.twitter.com/AeZTyahmaM

— 7Cricket (@7Cricket) December 26, 2018

Langer kept faith with Mitch Starc, despite a series of tepid performances with the new ball. Likewise, he stood by Khawaja even when his form seemed to have deserted him.

Australia will need its battle-hardened veterans in form for what is shaping as an arduous trip to England, first for the one-day World Cup and then an August Ashes defence.

To that end Khawaja’s century and Starc’s 10-wicket haul in Canberra were pleasing for Langer because it gives him something to build on.

“I addressed the boys today about it – Ussie and Mitch Starc. There has been a fair bit of outside pressure on those guys. They’re senior players and expectations are high, and for Mitch to take nine [10] wickets for the game and Ussie to get 100, that’s really pleasing,” Langer said.

For Marcus Harris, Peter Handscomb, Joe Burns, Matt Renshaw, Travis Head, Aaron Finch and Kurtis Patterson, the resumption of the Sheffield Shield season offers an opportunity to mount a case to be included in the Ashes squad.

'A difficult summer in Test match cricket comes to a very nice end'

Usman Khawaja brings up a well deserved 💯#AUSvSL #FoxCricket pic.twitter.com/RR0gTryein

— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) February 3, 2019

And then there is the return of the Cape Town trio – Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft.

It has been decades since spots on the plane to London were this up for grabs. The use of England’s preferred cricket ball, the Duke, will be employed to help Australian batsmen adjust to its peculiarities.

Though it’s impossible to replicate the low-hanging slate grey skies and fecund wickets so conducive to the English seamers, such as Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad in the heat of an Australian summer.

Tim Paine revealed after the Sri Lankan series he has been already planning for the Ashes for six months.

Langer is trying hard to stay in the here and now.

“(We’ve) got a fair bit coming up first. A World Cup,” the coach said.

“I know that’ll look after itself. Actually, there’s still four Shield games against the Dukes ball, there’s a Shield final for two teams, there’s some Australia A cricket, some county cricket.

“We’ll worry about the Ashes close to the date, I reckon.”

Australian fans will be worrying about it a lot sooner than that – on that, you can be certain.