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Australia’s recent practice of resting key players for overseas ODI series has seen them lose seven consecutive matches away from home. How will this affect their confidence for the upcoming Champions Trophy in England?
New Zealand yesterday completed a 2-0 series win over Australia on the back of a remarkable performance by gun quick Trent Boult, who snared 6-33.
That series loss for Australia comes on the back of their historic 5-0 whitewash defeat in South Africa in October. Both of those series saw Australia field line-ups which were nowhere near full strength and the opposition duly capitalised.
In the just-completed series against New Zealand, Australia were missing five members of their top seven – superstars David Warner and Steve Smith, opener Usman Khawaja, all-rounder Mitch Marsh and in-form keeper-batsman Matt Wade.
Against South Africa, Australia chose an utterly bizarre bowling attack, which I described in the lead up to that series as their worst ODI pace battery I had ever seen.
Not surprisingly, Australia lost both series as their makeshift line-ups struggled. But that does not excuse a run of seven consecutive losses on the road. Prior to this form slump, Australia had been better on the road than any other ODI team.
Australia had a fantastic 18-12 win-loss record in their previous 30 ODIs away from home.
Among that haul was a 4-1 series win in Sri Lanka, a 3-0 victory over Pakistan in the UAE, a 3-2 series triumph in England, and a tri-series victory over South Africa and the West Indies in the Caribbean.
But these past successes on the road have been largely overshadowed by Australia’s recent failures. The resting of Warner and Khawaja against New Zealand made sense given there was little riding on this ODI series and that pair were being offered a chance to prepare for the upcoming Test tour of India.
But when Smith, Wade and Marsh then all went down injured it left Australia vulnerable.
New Zealand would have sensed this and, apart from late in Australia’s innings in the first ODI, the Kiwis bowled very well. When Australia found themselves in sticky situations with the bat there was no Smith or Warner to haul them out of the mud.
In their absence no Australian batsman stood up and played a match-winning knock. It was left to all-rounder Marcus Stoinis to lead their recoveries in both games. The rookie showed tremendous composure with the bat and has pressed his case for a spot in Australia’s XI for the Champions Trophy in June.
Australia have won that tournament two of the past three times but the trophy is currently held by India. The upcoming Champions Trophy looks wide open, with Australia and India among five sides who appear to be in the mix, along with South Africa, New Zealand and England.
Australia have the world’s best ODI attack, as I wrote recently.
And their first-choice batting line-up is strong thanks to the extraordinary dominance of Warner and Smith.
What the series in New Zealand showed, however, is that the batting has grown too reliant on that pair. Since the form of Aaron Finch and George Bailey faded, Australia have not had any batsmen making consistent runs outside of Warner and Smith.
Fortunately, Travis Head is showing signs he can become a quality ODI batsman, having made 474 runs at an average of 53 this summer. Head’s consistency has been fantastic – in ten innings this summer only once has he been dismissed for less than 29.
Khawaja, meanwhile, has enormous potential as an ODI batsman and should be offered a proper run in the line-up. He has an astonishing domestic 50-over record – 1866 runs at an average of 53 – and has become a fine Test number three.
Smith, Warner, Khawaja and Head undoubtedly have the ability to provide Australia with a consistent foundation in ODIs. That would leave their dynamic all-rounders Mitch Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and James Faulkner to play with freedom, pushing Australia to the giant totals needed to win consistently in modern-day ODIs.
Australia have to quickly rediscover the balance in their batting line-up which has helped them win four of the past five World Cups and two of the past three Champions Trophies.
Although their recent form overseas has been horrendous, they should feel at home during the Champions Trophy in England, where ODI decks in the past two years have been firm and high-scoring, similar to Australian pitches.
Australia remain the favourites with the bookies to win that tournament. Losing to New Zealand was not exactly great preparation, however, as Australia do not have another ODI series before the Champions Trophy.
They will need to erase the memories of their seven consecutive losses on the road if they are to win that tournament.