Australia have enjoyed a reasonably strong start to the Cricket World Cup, picking up four wins so far against just the one loss – but there are big issues bubbling under the surface.
As nice as the win-loss record looks now, there’s no doubt Australia’s performances with the bat have been only been just enough to get them by. Too often, it’s been miracle performances by one or two batsmen papering over enormous cracks throughout the rest of the innings.
Will this come back to bite them at a crucial stage of the tournament?
We got Roar cricket expert Ryan O’Connell on the Game of Codes podcast examine the holes in our batting lineup and look at where the improvement can come from.
Listen to the discussion:
A top-order collapse (5/79) against the West Indies was saved by Steve Smith, Alex Carey and Nathan Coulter-Nile. Against India it was a steady, albeit slow, start that came undone as they fell from 2/202 to all out for 316.
The win against Pakistan still saw the Aussies collapse from 2/223 to all out for 307, while even the Sri Lanka win saw five wickets lost in the last seven and a half overs.