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Opinion
Australia’s disastrous start to the World Cup shouldn’t come as a major surprise when you look at how little time they are devoting to the 50-over format.
The Aussies have looked simultaneously rusty and fatigued in their opening two matches in copping heavy defeats from India and South Africa.
They look tired after a hectic schedule across all three formats over the past 12 months but are also clearly short of a gallop in one-day internationals as they struggle to adjust for the mission to add this trophy to the World Test Championship they collected in June by beating India at The Oval.
Australia’s batters in particular have looked betwixt and between in the 50-over environment.
They appear too nervous to launch a T20 style all-out assault but wary of not being too patient at a tournament where tallies of more than 300 have flown thick and fast.
This has led to several batters getting starts at well under a strike rate of 100 and then getting out, which puts pressure on the next player and so on.
It’s a recipe for disaster which has led to collapses of 8-89 against India and 6-43 in the loss to the Proteas.
Most of the 15-man squad rarely play in the domestic 50-over matches so their preparation for this World Cup has been limited to ODIs and key players like Pat Cummins (19 matches), Glenn Maxwell (20), Cameron Green (20) and Travis Head (16) have only played a handful of games each year since Australia’s 2019 semi-final exit.
The player who has lined up the most for Australia in the four-year gap between the 2019 tournament won by host nation England to this month’s event in India, was the scapegoat who was dumped after they lost last week, wicketkeeper Alex Carey, who appeared in 42 of the 44 team’s 44 ODIs.
| Team | ODIs since 2019 World Cup | Win-loss record | ODIs in 2023-27 FTP |
| Afghanistan | 29 | 14-14-1 | 45 |
| Australia | 44 | 24-20 | 43 |
| Bangladesh | 51 | 29-19-3 | 59 |
| England | 43 | 22-17-4 | 48 |
| India | 66 | 40-22-4 | 42 |
| Netherlands | 34 | 8-24-1-1 | N/A |
| New Zealand | 43 | 24-16-3 | 46 |
| Pakistan | 36 | 24-10-1-1 | 47 |
| South Africa | 41 | 22-15-4 | 39 |
| Sri Lanka | 56 | 30-24-2 | 52 |
While it was by no means the lowest tally among the nine full ICC member nations who qualified for the 2023 World Cup, it was 22 less than India and well behind Sri Lanka (56) and Bangladesh (51).
In the current Future Tours Programme which started this year and runs until 2027, the Aussies will play just 43 ODIs, which will be one of the lowest amounts among the main nations.
Due to their bias towards Test cricket and the growth of the T20 format, Australia tend to rest their big guns in ODIs with only Carey, Marnus Labuschagne (38), Adam Zampa (37) and David Warner (34) playing more than 70% of scheduled matches in the past four years.
| Player | ODIs from 2019-23 World Cup | Win-loss record | Batting average | Bowling average |
| David Warner | 34 | 19-15 | 42.63 | |
| Travis Head | 16 | 8-8 | 60.84 | |
| Mitchell Marsh | 26 | 14-12 | 32.12 | 34.9 |
| Steve Smith | 27 | 16-11 | 56.54 | |
| Marnus Labuschagne | 38 | 20-18 | 37.29 | 115 |
| Glenn Maxwell | 19 | 12-7 | 41.2 | 37.78 |
| Alex Carey | 42 | 24-18 | 29.7 | |
| Josh Inglis | 8 | 4-4 | 17.87 | |
| Cameron Green | 20 | 10-10 | 37.9 | 40.31 |
| Marcus Stoinis | 23 | 15-8 | 17.5 | 42.72 |
| Pat Cummins | 19 | 11-8 | 14.44 | 30.8 |
| Mitchell Starc | 26 | 18-8 | 12.36 | 26.68 |
| Josh Hazlewood | 30 | 18-12 | 26.66 | 28.47 |
| Sean Abbott | 16 | 8-8 | 18.75 | 37.47 |
| Adam Zampa | 37 | 21-16 | 11.41 | 22.89 |
These numbers highlight the importance of Mitchell Starc to Australia’s success – their win rate skyrockets when he’s in the side.
They also raise serious doubts about why the selectors have persisted with Marcus Stoinis for so long. He’s 34 now and has failed to produce the goods on a consistent basis with bat and ball while being in and out of the team with a range of injuries.
A combination of just 355 runs at 17.5 and 11 wickets at 42.72 in 24 since the previous World Cup adds up to a player who should have been replaced with a younger option.
Cummins was putting on a brave face when he fronted the media in Lucknow on Sunday in the lead-up to their crucial showdown with Sri Lanka at the same venue where the Australians were outplayed in all three facets of the game by South Africa.
Pat Cummins leads the Australian side off. (Photo by Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
“Not ideal at all. I think everyone after the last game was a little bit flat,” Cummins conceded.
“After the last game, everyone was a little bit flat. But the last couple of days have been really good. Everyone has rolled up their sleeves and want to get to work and make amends.
“No doubt we haven’t been up to the standard that we’d like to hold. We’ve been outplayed both games.
“When we’re at our best, we’re putting big runs on the board, we’re putting the pressure back on the opposition, us bowlers are taking wickets through the middle.
“We haven’t been able to pull any of that together so far.
“We know what makes us a really good team. It wasn’t that long ago we were No.1 in the world.”
“We’ve got to start winning and start winning quick. Every game now is almost like a final you’ve got to win just about all of them.”
Their hopes of a late surge to make the semis have been given a boost with Head flying to India to join the squad this week after the left-handed opener had the protective splint removed from his broken hand ahead of schedule.
Marsh has failed twice as a makeshift opener and although he’d done well in limited opportunities in the past 12 months at the top of the order, he had only filled the role six times in his career heading into a World Cup.
(Photo by Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images/Getty Images)
Australia’s selectors had the chance last year to give Marsh or another opening option a try when Aaron Finch was clearly past his use-by date but they persisted with him and he produced just 174 runs in his final 14 knocks at 12.42.
Head is targeting next Tuesday’s clash with the Netherlands in Delhi, the fifth of Australia’s nine pool games, as his comeback match.
“It’s coming along well, and probably better than we hoped,” Head told cricket.com.au on Sunday.
“When we decided not to go with surgery, which would have meant a 10-week recovery, we were told it would be minimum six weeks with the splint before we could look at playing again.
“Going by that plan, the Netherlands game will be just under six weeks from impact which is a pretty aggressive date so everything would have to go perfectly from here to make that deadline.
“But we’ll just see how it progresses over the next few days and I’m excited by the prospect of joining the boys over there later in the week.
“I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to bat when the splint came off but, apart from a fair bit of stiffness given I hadn’t been able to use it for the past four weeks, I was able to hit balls and play a fair range of shots.”