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Australia end their disappointing World T20 2014 campaign tonight, when they face off against tournament hosts Bangladesh in Dhaka. Join us for the live blog of this game from 8:30 pm AEDT.
Considering Australia entered the competition as favourites with fans and bookmakers alike, the team’s shocking performance warrants some kind of an introspection.
While naysayers doubted Australia had the ammunition to go the distance, not too many would have imagined the kind of capitulation that was on offer in their previous game against India. That came after they had already lost earlier group stage matches to Pakistan and the West Indies.
Their match against Bangladesh now sees them fighting to avoid finishing last in their group.
All-rounder Shane Watson has already wondered aloud whether Australia will be motivated enough for the game against Bangladesh, given there’s barely anything to take from the contest.
The worry for Australia going into this game will not be their focus alone. Their bowling has been dreadful in all three games, from the inability of the pace bowlers to get their direction right to the absence of potent spinners. And the batting crumbled badly at the first sign of spin against Pakistan and India.
It was an interesting change to their line-up for the previous game, when they decided to bring in an extra batsman in Cameron White in place of bowling all-rounder James Faulkner. While that lengthened their batting line-up, it seemed to give every batsman license to go out there and try hitting every ball out of the park – even slogging against the spin and across the line.
Faulkner had a decent match against the West Indies until he got spanked for a couple of sixes by Darren Sammy in the last over, but whether that was the reason for his axe isn’t known. There’s a good chance he will return to the XI.
Daniel Christian is still yet to play in the tournament so may get named in the side, while it will be interesting to see if Australia opt to feature two spinners in tandem for this one.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh aren’t having a great tournament either. They were expected to easily qualify from their group in the first round of the tournament, but stumbled towards the end in their loss to the unheralded Hong Kong.
More ignominy was to follow at the hands of West Indies, India and Pakistan in their first three games of the second round, as the host nation went down in a heap.
Their lackadaisical batting has been at the crux of their downfall, with the team shot out for totals of 108, 98, 138 and 140 in four of their games.
The bowling has been marginally better, but their bowlers could find themselves in happier times against a team clearly struggling to play spinners. With Mashrafe Mortaza ruled out of this one, Bangladesh might want to look at bringing in another spinner into the line-up.
Join me for this World T20 2014 game between Australia and Bangladesh on Tuesday and you can follow the live score of this game from 8:30 pm and post your comments below.
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