Earlier, Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and had no hesitation in opting to bat on a dry pitch in the first match of the three-Test series.
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Australia captain Steve Smith also leads an inexperienced team keen to make up for Australia’s poor recent record in Asia.
Perera fell for just four when he was lbw to paceman Mitchell Starc, leaving Sri Lanka wobbling on six for one at close of play.
At home, Sri Lanka will have that advantage of playing in conditions they know well and can exploit but their inexperienced batsmen could have trouble getting the better of the visiting Aussies.
The bad news is that there is a high chance of thunderstorms forecast for the first four days of the first Test. The spinners bowled well on that wicket that offered them up and down bounce.
Mathews tamely poked Steve O’Keefe’s left-arm spin to slip while Chandimal edged an away-swinger from Hazlewood to the wicket-keeper.
On Monday, Smith received the ICC Test championship mace and US$1m in prize money from ICC CEO David Richardson after Australia claimed the No1 ranking by the annual April 1 cut-off date.
“We may have to work on a few other things, and I think reverse swing will be a huge factor as well”, he said.
Voges has averaged a stunning 95.50 in 15 Tests since his debut more than a year ago but, as is the case with any 36-year-old, his birth certificate won’t help if there are a string of early outs.
Rare is the Test in which a first innings of 117 is adequate, though Mathews would have been buoyed by the start made by his bowlers.
Sri Lanka’s top scorer was Dhananjaya de Silva who managed a modest 24 before he was caught at short leg off the bowling of Nathan Lyon.
Australia fast bowler Josh Hazlewood bagged three wickets to leave Sri Lanka rattled on 84 for five at lunch on the opening day of the first Test in Pallekele on Tuesday.
Australian umpires reported Muralitharan for a suspect action during his first tour to Australia in 1995 and again in 1999 – but he was cleared by the International Cricket Council after tests.
Earlier, the local spin duo of veteran Rangana Herath (4-49) and debutant Lakshan Sandakan (4-58) shared eight wickets between them to keep Sri Lanka in the contest despite their capitulation in the first innings.
“Looking back to the UAE tour (against Pakistan in 2014), we bowled first on both of those occasions and were behind the game quite often”, Smith said.
“I guess we never really got in that kind of position so we never saw that side of Stephen”.
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The batters need to have some good plans against him at what he is going to bring at us.
