Hello Cricket Lovers,
Hope all of you are enjoying the exciting action from men's T20 World cup. So far it has been a decent World cup in terms of providing exciting matches. As the tournament has reached its final phase expectations will surge from the fans for their respective teams. Men in blue are still in a good enough position to defend their title though the unpredictability of the format rules out any favourite tag. Co-hosts Sri Lanka's disappointing performance wasn't much of a surprise considering their form wasn't that encouraging coming into the tournament. Performances by the West Indies & Zimbabwe teams are the real good news for cricketing world. Biggest shock of the tournament so far though has been the elimination of the pre-tournament favourites Australia in the group stages. Australia's performance could very well be termed as one of their worst in the global tournaments till date. This edition of Sports Talk Of The Month features the timid journey of test & ODI cricket giants in the shortest format of the game.
Over the years specially in last two decades global tournaments have been dominated by the Australians. But if we consider all the nine editions of the T20 World cup so far they haven't been that force which they are in the other two formats. They have played the finals only twice with one title to their name & that's a testament to their lack of dominance in the format. Last three T20 World cups have been real disasters for them including one at home. Though the current team had to face a lot of criticism for their performance in this edition not to forget that they haven't seen massive success in the history of this tournament so far.
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| Coach-captain duo of McDonald & Marsh failed in successive T20 World cups |
Let's get into various aspects that probably led to their downfall. In terms of planning it is fair to say that they did reasonably well in the past 12 months or so. They selected a core group of players and gave them a long rope to settle down in their respective roles. Captain Marsh who now majorly plays white ball cricket made sure to lead the side more often than not to get a hold of this group. The team had a good mix of youth & experience. There is no dearth of talent in Australian cricket irrespective of the format. But the brutality of the T20 format probably hurts even the best at times and that is what turned out to be the case for the Aussies in this World cup.
The group was brilliant over a year or so prior to the World cup but some unfortunate injuries coupled with lack of form to some of the key members didn't help their cause. Pace duo of Hazlewood & Cummins getting ruled out just before the tournament was a big blow. Specially Hazlewood was a big miss considering the way he was performing in T20 cricket in recent times. Captain Marsh's absence in the first two games courtesy an unfortunate injury was the final blow to their campaign. It's never easy for a team to make comeback in a short tournament like this once they loose a game or two at the initial phase.
In terms of selection calls which drawn a fair amount of criticism too there were definitely a few questionable ones which didn't make much of a sense considering that particular situation. Non selection of Steve Smith despite multiple injuries to players and his expertise in sub-continent pitches was a difficult pill to swallow. He was in outstanding form in BBL post a triumphant Ashes campaign. Even including him post injury to Marsh & not making him a part of the playing eleven in a crucial game against Sri Lanka was another baffling decision. Matt Renshaw who was their best batter in the first two matches of the tournament was surprisingly dropped in the third game. Australia is known for making tough decisions in big tournaments & always prioritising form over reputation. But in this tournament that was missing.
Even if they can be considered a bit unlucky in terms of injuries to key players before & during the tournament, some of their poor selection calls can't be ignored. There has been talks of Australia not prioritising T20 cricket like their counterparts. Here's their head coach Andrew McDonald's views on the same https://www.espn.in/cricket/story/_/id/47974658/australia-coach-andrew-mcdonald-says-team-take-t20-world-cup-lightly That's a debatable topic considering they do play a substantial amount of T20 cricket throughout the year & have tried to build a group of T20 specialists for the format as well. But somehow the Australian swagger that we are used to witness in the big tournaments is hardly seen during T20 World cups. Here's former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting's take on Australia's poor campaign https://www.outlookindia.com/sports/cricket/australia-icc-t20-world-cup-2026-debacle-ricky-ponting-reaction
They have produced world class players in this format too but haven't been able to produce a fearsome or champion unit in T20 cricket. There is definitely a lot to ponder for all the stakeholders of Australian cricket in terms of their roadmap for T20 cricket considering they have a T20 World cup scheduled at home in 2028 along with a packed schedule of ODIs & tests throughout next two years. It would be interesting to see how one of the giants of world cricket reverses their fortune in the shortest format of the game.
Let's now take a quick look on what could possibly be a wayout for them to turn their fortunes in T20 cricket without compromising their dominance in the other two formats. Firstly they should shortlist a group of players purely on performance rather than reputation and give them a long rope to prove their credentials just like they did post T20 World cup in 2024. At the same time they should have a clear communication with the senior members of the current team in terms of their selection or role in the upcoming home World cup in a couple of years time. Whether captain Marsh will be able to continue for two more years at the highest level considering his injury prone career so far will be another question. If a change in leadership is the need of the hour that has to happen now so that the new leader gets a fair amount of time to settle down before the big tournament.
Even though an immediate change in the coaching group doesn't seem evident, but considering head coach McDonald's workload for the next two years they might think of including some of the format specific coaches maybe in a consultant role. Australia is a champion side who knows how to plan for big tournaments or turn an adverse situation to a favourable one. So there will be huge expectations from their fans come 2028 and hopefully they will conquer the occasion like many others in the past.
That's it for this month. We 'll be back next month to talk about the champions of this year's T20 World cup.
Image Credit
DustyNail, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Prime Video AU & NZ, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
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