Australia still needs to play one more game to play, against Oman, but they are still out of the T20 World Cup.
Author : Akshita Jain | EQmint | Sports news
Around 2 am in Australia, the messages started coming in. Bharat Sundaresan and Tom Morris were broadcasting the T20 World Cup on Sen Radio when their phones suddenly lit up. It was not a trickle. It was a flood. There were fans of Australia who were angered and woke up just to be furious. It was because of Cameron Green. It was because of Steve Smith, who was just sitting in the stands. It was because of the team that had come all the way from the other side of the world and was now losing to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.
Australia’s T20 Apathy, Fans’ World Cup Fury
The Australians are great T20 players. That is the simple statement of the matter. However, they just don’t “feel” it. The Big Bash is just something that you hear in the background. The T20 World Cup is the event that occurs. The real game, the real identity, lives in the green cap, in the five-day Tests, in the Ashes that everyone talks about. The ODI World Cup, if absolutely necessary.
“Unless you saw some of the texts,” says Sundaresan. “That they had beaten Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, the fans wouldn’t have totally lost interest in the World Cup. In fact, they might have reacted with something like ‘Yeah, that was expected.’ And then kept on with their focus on the footy season now that the Ashes are behind us. However, given that they are losing, and because it is a World Cup, the fury is simply coming out in full force.”
Selection Backlash Peaks: Cameron Green Targeted, Steve Smith Snubbed
The anger was very directed which is a clear indicator of its authenticity. It was not some kind of abstract disappointment. Cameron Green, 25, had become the symbol of everything that the selectors were criticised for – the favourite who was accused of not deserving his place, the name on the team sheet that nobody could explain. And then there was Steve Smith, brought in as an SOS and not even being used while Australia was getting eliminated, which the texts referred to as “an insult”.
Green at three. Tim David at four. Josh Inglis at five, getting rattled. “The team it left us with,” Healy said, “are all finishers, no starters.”
Injury Chaos, Spin Struggles End Australia’s T20 Dream
One line there is worthy of being singled out. All finishers, no starters. Technically, a batting order with only finishers and no starters is a problem. For a proud cricketing culture, it is a confession of weakness.
Some of this was unfortunate. Josh Hazlewood, who had just helped RCBwin their first IPL title — was gone. Mitch Starc, gone. Pat Cummins, gone. Three world-class bowlers, two injured, one retired. What was left was Stoinis, Maxwell, and Connolly sharing the bowling duties, which Healy described with a certain accuracy: “part-timers who can be handy.” It’s almost impossible to imagine Australia losing the game against Sri Lanka after scoring that total. But it’s equally hard to visualize Australia collapsing, from 160 for 4 to 181 all out.
However, bad luck is only part of the story. Before the tournament, Australia had toured Pakistan and lost the T20 series there while fielding three debutants and resting their stars.
Former Pakistan captain Moin Khan expressed what everyone considered: “It is as if they are fulfilling a formality.” It was obvious that this Australian team would struggle on spin-friendly tracks.
Mitchell Marsh had given up Test cricket to devote himself fully to this tournament. By all accounts, he was really excited. And then everything fell apart — injuries, loss of form, selections that went against logic — and Australia were out.
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Resource Link : ESPN
