Defending champions Australia open their campaign on Saturday, 1 June, against Afghanistan.
The Aussies then line up against the West Indies (6 June), India (9 June) and Pakistan (12 June). After facing Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, their match against hosts and pre-tournament favourites England is on 25 June before they sign off against New Zealand and South Africa.
The composition of the Australian team is as follows.
Batsmen: Aaron Finch (captain), David Warner, Steve Smith, Usmaan Khwaja and Shaun Marsh.
Wicketkeeper: Alex Carey.
All-rounders: Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis, with both being batting allrounders.
Spinners: Adam Zampa and Nathan Lyon.
Fast bowlers: Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Kane Richardson, Nathan Coulter-Nile and Jason Behrendorff.
A SWOT analysis identifies internal strengths and weaknesses and also external threats and opportunities. You can read my SWOT analysis of India here, but let’s now run a SWOT analysis of the Australian team.
Strengths
Nothing succeeds like success and no-one is more successful than Australia in the World Cup. They have won the tournmanet five times, including three times in a row, and they have reached four finals in a row, with all three stats standalone records.
Australia have a strong batting line-up and a handy attack. Most importantly, they are peaking at the right time. When they lost 0-5 to England and seemed out of sorts, but coach Justin Langer has brought about a transformation that had them defeat India 3-2 on tour and win 5-0 against Pakistan to show they are back in business.
Their World Cup history and their good current form will give the Aussies confidence they will go deep into the tournament and maybe retain the prize.
Australia’s Aaron Finch (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Weaknesses
Steve Smith and David Warner have not been in the team since they began serving their bans for the ball-tampering scandal early last year. Their lack of match practice in the 50-over format may be an issue. Of course they played in the IPL, but it remains to be seen whether they can make the quick transition from club T20 to international ODIs. Being quality players, they will probably get it right.
Wicketkeeper Alex Carey is inexperienced and does not have a backup, which is a major issue as well.
Opportunities
The main opportunity for opponent teams is that the Aussie middle order can be susceptible to spin. One of the main reasons for the 0-5 loss to England was the success of spin twins Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid, who took 12 wickets each. Their opponents, most of whom have got good spinners, will seek to take advantage of this perceived susceptibility.
Peter Handscomb will feel unlucky to miss out as he is in good form and has adjusted to the Aussie playing 11, plus he is also a fine player of spin. Australia will seek to have Steve Smith rise to the occasion to address this issue.
Threats
The bowling attack looks great, but the fitness of the bowlers is questionable – some are injury-prone and it’s a long tournament. Virtually no match can be taken lightly. The oower hitters of West Indies, the balanced teams of England and India and the good spinners in almost every team could derail the Aussie campaign.
Overall, however, Australia is not just a contender but also one of the favourites to claim the 2019 World Cup.
Matt Sterne
Roar Rookie
Missing the lack of strike rate in the Aussie team which is significantly lower than England and India.
Harvey Wilson
Roar Rookie
Warner...boooooo
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I do think listing Smith and Warner in the weakness column is a bit strange. They are certainly one of the biggest strengths in the team. I expect both of them to have very good tournaments. The biggest weaknesses really are Stoinis and Carey. The ability for those two in the lower middle order to rack up quick runs at the end, and the ability for Stoinis to make a useful contribution with the ball. I think the "run rate" thing is a bit over blown. People look at the strike rates of the batsmen and instantly assume the Aussies can't score quickly, but the fact is they haven't been playing the majority of their matches in conditions where 350-400 is a par score like England have. So of course their strike rates are going to be lower. In fact, the one time in the India & Pakistan series they had to chase a 350+ score they actually did it comfortably. But most of the matches had winning scores under 300. That's not just because none of the teams had the players to score more, it's about the conditions. The same Pakistan team may have lost 4-0 against England, but did so scoring 3 consecutive 350+ scores.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Thanks Paul. excellent inputs
Paul
Roar Guru
I think you've been very generous to Australia in your analysis, Ritesh. Your comments about our strengths are very fair, but I think there are more weaknesses and threats than you've mentioned. Weaknesses - the team is short one quality bowling all-rounder capable of regularly getting through 10 overs. We're relying heavily on Stoinis to produce some form as well as Maxwell. I have no doubts both will give it their all, but this is clearly a weakness. The other two obvious weaknesses are our run rate and a lack of a genuine hitter at the back end of the innings. Much has been written about these problems in recent weeks, but the side would have to play at it's very best to cover these weaknesses, especially against sides like England or India. Threats - there are two related threats. The first is our bowling unit which has not played a single proper game together. No-one knows how Starc will go and Zampa, who bowled realy well in India & the UAE, needs to adapt quickly to English conditions. The other threat is for a team that has not played together. Smith & Warner come back, Finch is now the leader, an uncertain bowling unit and a batting side with question marks. The whole team has to realize it's limitations and work extra hard to minimize any shortfalls.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
I'm under the impression there is no movement at all.
Jack Hartland
Roar Rookie
We’ve definitely struggled against the swing of the duke over there, does the white ball have as much movement?
Marcus
Guest
Regardless of what Australia’s real chances are I this World Cup, no team will take them lightly or really look forward to facing this team. Everyone knows they are a World beating team.
Harry Selassie
Roar Rookie
That and the middle order is susceptible to spin was identified as another weakness. In other words, there are few apparent weakness on Australia. i do wonder if Handscomb may be a late addition to the team after observing some of these warm up matches? Each team has to 23 May to make adjustments to their World Cup roster.
Ouch
Roar Rookie
If our weaknesses are Smith and Warner coming back and having an inexperienced keeper, then we're in good shape.
Brian
Guest
If there is any swing will anyone be game enough to shine the ball?