While it was great to see Australia bounce back with a win over Sri Lanka in Perth, it was better to see Ireland defeat England at the MCG .
If there’s one top cricketing nation vulnerable to minnow losses it’s the Poms. Their top order was getting turned over quicker than their Prime Ministers!
It adds even more intrigue to Australia’s showdown with England at the G on Friday night.
The only personnel change that I’d be looking to make for Australia’s must-win match is to reinstate Adam Zampa as the frontline spinner if he’s out of the COVID-19 protocols but Ashton Agar did extremely well on Tuesday night so there’s no problem whatsoever if he stays in the team.
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I reckon most international squads would love to have Agar in their team as their main tweaker.
Where I think Australia do need to make changes is with the bat and ball, particularly around how they use Mitchell Starc and getting the best out of Glenn Maxwell.
(Photo by James Worsfold/Getty Images)
Starc is a strike weapon, he swings the ball and is a proven performer.
I can see the logic of the horses for courses approach they’re taking but your game plan has got to be match specific, pitch specific and based around the dimensions of the ground and your opponents. And on Friday night, that all adds up to giving Starcy the new ball against the Poms.
If the G is not grassed then I don’t mind opening with Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins forcing their batters back to play horizontal shots.
Cummins is better at extracting bounce but the ball stops swinging after a few overs in T20 cricket so you need to give Starc two of those first few overs to see if he can use that to his advantage.
He can get you a wicket or two or three in the power play and really put the opposition on the back foot.
And he needs to be bowling at the death as well. I’d give Pat Cummins a rest from over 18 to 20.
England are well stocked with powerful batters and Starc is again the best option in those final few overs, along with someone like Marcus Stoinis with his change-ups, to stop the big hitters from sending too many deliveries over the fence.
(Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
You can win or lose the game in overs 18, 19 and 20 so that’s a definite area where Australia can make big improvements.
Maxwell batting a bit higher at No.4 needs to have a look at the way Virat Kohli played the other night against Pakistan in Melbourne.
He paced himself until it was time to go and then he went ballistic. But he didn’t do it by making outlandish shots. He played in the V for the most part and the more time he spent at the crease, his hitting became cleaner and the Pakistani bowlers didn’t know where to put the ball to him in those last few overs of the run-chase.
Maxi can get a bit too funky with his reverse sweeps and innovation early in his innings. I know he’s great at it but I’d love to see him build his innings in a more traditional way before launching into those extravagant shots.
Don’t forget about where your strength is. To continue that super hero theme, he’s like Thor in that his bat’s like a hammer.
(Photo by Chris Hyde – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)
He’s got that much power he can mishit the ball and it can still for six when he sets a really good base and swings hard to commit to the stroke.
I was certainly in the minority when I wrote after the first match ended in a heavy defeat to New Zealand that I thought Australia could turn their World Cup campaign around.
The performance in Perth was much better and it was great to see big Stoin in the zone with the bat, scoring Australia’s fastest ever T20 half-century and the second quickest of all time.
They call him The Incredible Hulk and he certainly wasn’t in Bruce Banner mode at Optus Stadium.
The catchphrase for the Hulk is don’t make him angry and he was certainly emotional.
One of the criticisms from the loss to the Black Caps at the SCG was that they looked like they were going through the motions but they were a lot more passionate in this game, particularly Stoin with his fist pumps and the emotion he showed.
You could see when the TV cameras crossed to the dressing room there were smiles all round and they were really pumped for him. That emotion is really important in a World Cup campaign if you’re going to go deep into the tournament.
Hopefully Aaron Finch’s innings against the Sri Lankans proves to be an anomaly. He was getting frustrated because he couldn’t get going when the new ball was swinging early. At one stage he evidently asked one of the umpires if he had any tips.
He needs to commit to freeing himself up mentally and technically.
If the pitch in Melbourne is like the one for India’s win over Pakistan, I think that’ll be a big advantage for the home side. It will suit our quicks.
Ashton Agar of Australia celebrates the wicket of Pathum Nissanka of Sri Lanka. (Photo by Paul Kane/Getty Images)
Mark Wood is a real X-factor for them but besides him I don’t think they have a great fast bowling attack.
Their batting looks insane but I’d love to see a pitch that has a bit of nibble in it because I’ll back our pacemen against theirs and it will reduce the effectiveness of Adil Rashid’s wrong-un a little bit.
Thanks to Ireland’s boilover win, all is not lost and if Australia get the W at the G, then surely they will make the semis and taking out back-to-back T20 World Cup becomes a reality .
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