If David Warner, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins play to their ability, Australia will retain the World Cup.
For Warner and Smith, back in the side after their 12-month suspensions, it will be a welcome return. They did the sandpapergate crime and have done the time. Now it’s back to business.
Warner’s magnificent IPL campaign saw him win the coveted Orange Cap as the tournament’s leading run-getter, with 692 from just 12 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad, 99 more runs than second-placed Lokesh Rahul’s 593 from 14 games and 163 more than Quinton de Kock’s 529 from 16 games in third.
In the process Warner made the most half-centuries, with eight, from Rahul’s six, struck the second-highest number of fours, with 57, to Shikhar Dhawan’s 64 from four more games, and the second highest average of 69.20 to MS Dhoni’s 83.20, with seven not outs among his 12 digs.
And before the naysayers change into overdrive knocking the IPL, for Warner to return figures so much better than anyone else says volumes for the way he was striking the ball at the rapid rate of 143.86 and outscoring many of the world’s top T20 batsmen with ease.
Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner (Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP/Getty Images)
Sure, he had a let-down with 39, zero and two in the warm-up games in Brisbane on return, but that was just the lull before the storm that’s about to hit in the World Cup.
Warner must open in the cup for two reasons. He is a far more devastating batsman than Aaron Finch or Usman Khawaja, and Warner runs every run hard, ever alert to fielding errors for bonus runs. Both Finch and Khawaja are lazy runners, but Warner will hurry them along to the benefit of the side.
But Khawaja and Finch are the two leading ODI run-getters in 2019. Khawaja shows the way with 769 runs at 59.15 with a strike rate of 83.58, with Finch second on 634 runs at 52.83 with a strike rate of 81.38.
Which one of the two joins Warner as the opening pair will be decided in the two warm-up games against England at the Rose Bowl on 25 May and against Sri Lanka at the Rose Bowl on 27 May.
Whoever misses out will bat at No. 3, followed by Steve Smith, who had an ordinary IPL with Rajasthan Royals, finishing 27th among the tournament run-getters with 319 at 39.87. But on his return for the New Zealand series in Brisbane Smith teed off with 22, 89* and 91* to prove he’s ready to fire in the World Cup.
And so will Glenn Maxwell with the bat and Pat Cummins with the ball. So far this year Maxwell has cracked 458 ODI runs at 41.63 with the rapid strike rate of 126.51. And to keep up the positive momentum he added 52 and 70 in his two appearances against the Kiwis.
As for Cummins, he’ll be the shining light of the World Cup and is a must to open the bowling for Australia with Mitchell Starc. In 2019 Cummins has 17 ODI wickets at a miserly 14.29 with a strike rate of 19.5, and he’s returned 3-36 and 4-32 in his two shots at New Zealand.
So buckle up the seat belts, folks, as David Warner, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Pat Cummins give opponents a mighty rocky ride on the way to lifting the trophy again.
Riccardo
Roar Rookie
Possibly David. I would have chucked Marsh, Zampa and Starc in there too. On these English roads, where there is likely to be little seam and/or swing on occasion bowling as a unit becomes paramount. Applying pressure with line, length and pace so someone like Zampa can have success may be the difference. But I actually think, having watched Australia improving, the balance the return of Warner and Smith brings to the side will be just as critical. The swagger is back and underestimating a side with such rich would cup success would be a mistake.
JamesH
Roar Guru
Finch coming in at 4 means we have a guy playing in a completely new batting position for a World Cup. The Finch-Khawaja partnership has been working. No need to mess with it when Warner is perfectly capable of batting elsewhere.
Tom
Guest
Run fests. Flat pitches, small grounds and a handful of overs at the start of the inninga where the white ball may swing a bit. If that is not what you are seeing you must not be watching ODI’s in England.
Tom
Guest
Zilch for the bowlers. Refer to the scorecards from the England vs Pakistan matches and most of the Royal london cup matches recently. Run fests
Tom
Guest
Pretty obvious that I do, seeing as I know the ball does bugger all and the pitches are dead flat. Have you been watching the England vs Pakistan matches in the last week? Run fests. Nothing for bowlers.
Peter Warrington
Guest
Cummins finds life where others only see slow death. India 17 and Bangladesh that year - he was smashing the gloves when others had given up. He can threaten anyone anywhere. he is Thommo.
AREH
Roar Guru
There might be a little at this time of year, but nothing like the red ball in the UK; tend to agree with Tom on that.
Zavjalova
Roar Rookie
You obviously don't watch ODI's in England
AREH
Roar Guru
And equally as capable anywhere from 1-6 for mine. Contending with the new ball, going hard from ball one, consolidating or finishing - he can do it all.
Tom
Guest
Swining conditions? Lol when was the last time you watched an ODI in England? Flat pitches and the white kookuburra ball. Hardly any swing.
Tom
Guest
Warner Khawaja Smith Finch Warner can win games in the first 10 overs. Like you said, Khawaja is an opener and nothing else. Smith averages 50 at 3 compared to 30 at 4. Finch coming in at 4 means he most likely avoids the opening bowlers where they will pummel his front pad while the ball is swining for the first 6 overs. EASY
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
This must be click bait. It’s pretty obvious that none of our best players is going to a win a tournament on their own; that it depends on the other seven players; that our best players are no better than and possibly inferior to those of England and India; and that in the finals, anyone can win on the day. As for Cummins making a huge difference - he’s been great, but he only bowls ten overs, and the pitches and balls are such that the quicks seems unlikely to make huge inroads early on. He’s pretty good at the death, but possibly not quite as good as Bumrah or Rabada. And it’s arguably more important to have good spinners in the middle overs, an area where Australia clearly lags behind India, England and South Africa.
Zavjalova
Roar Rookie
Swinging conditions... Starc is the man to win it for Aus
Paul
Roar Guru
David, IMO there are 4 guys who MUST play every game and be at peak form if we're to win the Cup. You've named 3 of them - Warner, Maxwell & Cummins but Zampa is the 4th. If any of these guys goes down injured for any length of time, their skillset cannot be replaced because we have no-one in the squad that get's close to them. If that happens, we are no chance against the quality teams that will be involved at the back end of this tournament.
Graham
Guest
The whole bowling team is important If you have 1 good bowler you can see them off, score 1/40 off their 10 and get 300+ off the other 4 If you have 3 good bowlers thats 30 overs of pressure and only 20 overs you can go at over 6 an over without giving away wickets If you have 4 good bowlers its hard to score 300 regardless of how poor your part timers are and how good the pitch is
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
Supporting cast is always important. The players you have listed, possibly plus Starc if he can truly be back to his best, likely are the ones who need to star for Australia to really have a tilt at the title, but the rest of the team need to be solid also. No good for Cummins to be producing the sort of bowling displays he has so far this year, only to have 2-3 of the other bowlers going for 80-100 off their 10 overs. And for guys like Warner, Khawaja, Finch and Smith to play with freedom at the top, they are going to need to have faith in the guys behind them being able to score runs if they get out. For a team to win, the strongest points of the team need to be strong, but also, the weakest parts of the team need to avoid being the glaring weakness that costs games. So to that point, can Stoinis and Carey step up with the bat and provide the cameo's at the end that take a decent score to a great score? Can NCN and Stoinis keep it tight at all and avoid leaking too many runs?
Ouch
Roar Rookie
Mitch Starc as well.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I still think we're better off with Warner at 3. I know he's a more explosive batsman then Finch and Ussie but he'll be explosive at 3. His running between the wickets is also far more of an asset when the field is spread than it is during the powerplay. The trouble is, if he opens then Khawaja will probably bat 3, where his ODI record is bog average. He needs pace on the ball and he needs room in the outfield to get going. If he comes in against spin at a time when boundaries are hard to come by then he inevitably gets bogged down. Whatever we lose with Warner batting at 3 is smaller than what we lose if Khawaja bats at 3. Finch could potentially bat there but they didn't practice that at all against NZ.
Graham
Guest
don't forget starc the destroyer
mbp
Guest
the whole team needs to play to their potential consistantly..... i can see our bowlers bowling at a high level consistantly... the big question is can our batsman consistantly perform well... if mitchel stark returns to health and form.... in him we have a bowler that can single handedly win a game. hopefully the pitches will be bowler friendly which will favour teams like australia, south africa and pakiatan.... if the pitches are batsman friendly it will even out the field a lot.... and make england and india the teams to beat.