A change of clothing, a change of ball, a change of format, a change of personnel. A change of fortune? Australia would certainly hope so. After the humiliation of the No. 1 Test side in the world being whitewashed by the No. 7, Steven Smith's men are now searching for a win - any old win - to restore a little bit of self-confidence. There are two pieces of good news for Australia that will encourage them ahead of this five-match ODI series.
One: Rangana Herath is not playing. The man who claimed 28 wickets in the Test series retired from ODIs earlier this year. Two: the Australians might find the pitches for the ODI series a little more to their liking. Of course, it should be noted that there was nothing wrong with the Test pitches. But surfaces designed for 50-over matches and plenty of entertainment - those will suit Australia more.
Just as in the Tests, Australia enter this series as No. 1 in the world - the difference is that their lead is so sufficient that even a total disaster will not see them drop from the top spot. A change of personnel will bring some freshness to the group. From outside the Test squad come James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Adam Zampa, George Bailey, Travis Head and Matthew Wade.
Still, that leaves nine members of the ODI party who must shake off the disappointments of the past month and find fresh spark in the shorter format. Along with Smith, and his deputy David Warner, there is Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon, Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Moises Henriques. Mitchell Marsh was originally named in the squad, but has been sent home to rest.
"No matter where you play, if you're not winning, things are going to be a little bit flat," Faulkner said in Colombo on the eve of the first ODI. "But we've got some new faces, and I'm one of them, that come into the group and bring some energy and some excitement for the five games and the two T20s after that."
Faulkner is, at least, certain to play the first match, after being dropped at the end of the ODI tri-series in the Caribbean in June. But what the rest of Australia's XI will look like remains a mystery. The axing of Glenn Maxwell, Australia's reigning ODI cricketer of the year, alters the balance of the side, while the return of Warner from injury and the inclusion of Shaun Marsh create a top-order glut.
The likelihood is that Warner and Finch will open, and it would take a brave selector to leave Marsh out, given the form he displayed in the Colombo Test. That might in turn make it hard to find room for Khawaja, who was second only to Smith on Australia's run charts in the West Indies tri-series. But the dropping of Maxwell from not only the XI but the wider squad shows that almost nobody is safe.
"Besides the skipper, no one else is really guaranteed a spot in the side," Finch told reporters in Colombo on Friday. "You have to be performing all the time. You just have to keep getting the business done, and if you don't, there's always someone breathing down your neck for your spot.
"When you've got young guys performing well, Travis Head to go to England and get 175 [for Yorkshire] and play well in the last domestic one-day summer, there's always someone breathing down your neck. So you have to be performing all the time, or have a real lot of credits in the bank."
One player with almost unlimited credits in the bank is Starc, the Player of the Tournament in last year's World Cup and arguably the most dangerous wielder of a white ball at pace in the world right now. Not only that, but Starc is coming off the sort of Test series that would seem fanciful for a fast bowler in Asia: 24 wickets at 15.16, a wicket every 26 balls. The only question is whether the selectors may wish to rest Starc at some point during the ODI series.
The other query around Australia's attack is whether they will opt for one or two spinners. The young legspinner Zampa has shown remarkable poise during his first year as an international cricketer and is coming off an outstanding Caribbean Premier League season. He should be the starting spinner, ahead of Lyon, who in any case could use a break after sending down 154 overs in the Test series, the most for any bowler from either side.
Whatever side Australia's selectors come up with, at least they can view this change of format as a fresh start.