Australia are the most successful team when it comes to the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup with five titles to their name. But interestingly they are still waiting for their first one in the 20 over format.
In the first edition in 2007, they had started as favorites after their success in the 50 over format and eventually lost out to the inaugural champions India in the semi-finals. They managed to reach the finals in 2010 where England defeated them to win their first ICC World Cup Trophy. In this piece, we look at their journey in this tournament, the players who have contributed their most, and their recent form.
2009: Exit at the First Stage
A cricket fan will expect Australia to at least reach the knockout stage given their rich cricketing history and their domination in the 1990s and 2000s. This did not happen in 2009 when they lost both their group games against Sri Lanka and West Indies and did not even reach the Super 8’s. Coming into the tournament they had lost both their T20I series against Pakistan (1-0) and South Africa (2-0).
2010: One Victory Away
Australia won all their matches in the group stage and Super 8 and probably the world saw one of the best T2OI encounters back then when Pakistan fought it against Australia in the second semi-final. At a stage, Australia required 47 in 17 balls with three wickets remaining. M.Hussey played one of his best knocks and took on M.Amir for 18 runs in the 19th over and smashed S.Ajmal all over the ground in the 20th over for 23 runs and thus winning the match for Australia with 1 ball to spare. One of the major reasons for Australia reaching the finals that year was an overall team effort. Five Australian batsmen had more than 150+ runs with a strike rate of around 140 and three bowlers picked up 10 or more wickets in the tournament.
2014: Poor Outing with Bat & Ball
A final in 2010 followed by a semi-final in 2012, Australia would have wished to have a better outing in Bangladesh. They only managed one win in four matches and failed to qualify for the knockouts. As seen in the earlier stats, that when many batsmen contributed the team did well, this time around only two of them could manage to score more than 100 runs and the highest wicket-taker had only five wickets in four matches.
Best Performers
With the bat, Australia has one batsman, Shane Watson, who has more than 500 runs in this tournament whereas the two-time champions, West Indies, have three batsmen with such stats. India too has five batsmen with more than 500 runs in this tournament. Australia has struggled to find a core T20I batting lineup. With the bowl, they are more consistent and in line with the other teams having more than three bowlers with more than 15 wickets. India has four of them and West Indies has five. But with Australia, their highest wicket-taker is Shane Watson, who is also the highest run-getter.
Issues with Team Combinations
Batting: In the 2014 edition which took place in Bangladesh which is known for its slow pitches where you require contribution from many batsmen. The winners of the tournament, Sri Lanka had four batsmen who aggregated more than 100 runs, all of them striking at a different rage thus giving them the complete team performance. Australia had only two players who had more than 100 runs, the fourth-highest run aggregate for them was 50 runs, which was one of the reasons they could not manage to win more than one match. India who reached the finals had three players scoring over 100 runs, but their third player, Yuvraj Singh had a strike rate of less than a runner ball, which eventually was the reason for their low score in the final.
The same was the story in the 2016 edition for Australia, with only two batsmen having an aggregate score of more than 100 runs. The winners of the tournament have four players with more than 100 runs and striking at a different rage.
In the 2010 and the 2012 editions, the Australian batsman did manage to perform as a batting unit and score heavily. With 5 batsmen crossing the 100 run mark in the 2010 edition and three batsmen in the 2012 edition. They did benefit from it as they reached the finals and the semi-finals in the respective editions.
Bowling: In the 2014 edition, 4 of the top 6 wicket-takers were spinners, whereas Australia’s highest wicket-taker did not even find a spot in the TOP-15. J.M Muirhead had 2 wickets as a spinner for Australia.
The same was the storyline in the 2016 edition, 6 of the top 7 wicket-takers were spinners, and Australia’s highest wicket-taker did not find a spot in the TOP-10. A.Zampa did manage to pick up 5 wickets in the 4 matches but he was the lone warrior. Australia just did not have the spin bowling attack in the last 3 T20 WC which took place in the subcontinent.
In the 2010 edition, when they managed to reach the finals, they had 4 bowlers in the top 10 wicket-takers list and also 3 batsmen in the top run-getter list. England was just better on the day of the final.
Recent Form in T20I
Coming in the tournament Australia has lost their last five T20I series against England, India, New Zealand, West Indies, and Bangladesh. In this period, they have managed to win only 6 matches out of the 21 played. The team has won 4 matches out of the 10 played in UAE and would want to better it. They have started well this time around by defeating South Africa and the bowlers did have a good outing. Australia will have to continue with their start as they will face teams against which they don’t have good recent form. Against England, Bangladesh, and West Indies they have won only one match out of four players against each team and have a 100% win record against Sri Lanka in the same number of matches.
Conclusion
Australia did not start at the favourites in the tournament and it will be tough for them to go all the way given the recent form and conditions. But the Australian team is known for fighting against the odd and giving it their best till the very last moment. Glen Maxwell has been near his best since the IPL and he is one player who can give you the X factor in the tournament. The fans down under will hope that this set of players are able to add this trophy to their cabinet.
For Australia to win the ICC Men’s T20 WC, they need to focus on two things. One is picking batsmen for different roles and picking bowlers according to their condition. When all the responsibility is one player, the team is just limited to one winning template and this often hurts a team in a big match. The Indian team too had the same issues in the 2014 and 2016 edition with Virat being the Man of the Series in both the tournaments yet India failing to win the cup. In the editions, Australia managed to reach the knockout, they just have been up against an opponent who had a pretty good day on the field, and that’s the case in this shortest format of the game.