The 5 Time ICC Cricket World Cup winners Australia are languishing in 9th position on the points table with 2 defeats from 2 matches. Australia have looked clueless in all the 3 facets of the game. We should not forget that Australia registered their highest defeat in the ODI WorldCup of 134 runs against South Africa which was not a good sign by a team full of match winners.
The star players, Smith & Warner haven’t been able to perform according to their credentials. We witnessed against South Africa how the duo was cramped for room and Proteas’ bowling unit made like harder for the sturdy Australia’s batting lineup. The peculiarity of South Africa’s bowlers was that they bowled straight lines & lengths.
Lack of quality batters in middle order
The side is way reliant on Marnus Labuschagne and the form of Glenn Maxwell is quite unpredictable. It won’t be wrong to say that the side is badly missing the services of Travis Head (*fractured hand) as he along with Warner were quite fearless in the powerplay overs. It is believed that Travis Head would be available for selection for the latter half of the tournament.
The likes of Cameron Green & Marcus Stoinis haven’t been able to play their natural brand of cricket in the middle overs phase and have been quite ineffective against spinners. Perhaps, Cameron Green should be made to bat in the middle order No.5 ahead of Maxwell as he has quite a wide range of shots and can dismantle the opposition.
Gamble by Cricket Australia (CA)
CA’s chief selector George Bailey perhaps made a mistake by going into the marquee ODI WC 2023 with a lone spinner in the form of Adam Zampa. Zampa along with Ashton Agar could have been a deadly combo (*not 100% fit) and at the same time even the veteran spinner Nathan Lyon could have made the opposition unit dance on his tone.
Glenn Maxwell is doing a fine job but the problem with Australia is that they are not making both Zampa & Maxwell bowl in tandem for most of the time which is a concern. Glenn Maxwell recently took 2 wickets and gave away 34 runs in his 10 over spell against Proteas. Maxwell is trying his best but the absence of premier spinner is hurting Aussies.
What lies ahead for Australia
Australia will have to get back to winning ways quickly; their next match is against Sri Lanka on 16th October and slowly the Aussies are entering into a do or die kind of scenarios as for making it to Semi Finals, the side has to win 5-6 matches to stake a claim in the knock-out stages.
Skipper Pat Cummins & co will have to bring their ‘A’ game if they want to make a case for themselves in the ODI WC 2023. Aussies should not make the mistake of taking Sri Lanka lightly, as in 2022 ODI series, the island nation had won the 5 match ODI series by 3-2 after a span of 3 decades.