Australian skipper Mitchell Marsh believes that his squad had all the capability to win the tournament but didn’t play ‘best cricket’ in key games. He also described the team’s group-stage exit from the T20 World Cup as a “missed opportunity”.
Australia, one of the giants of limited-overs cricket with six ODI and one T20 World Cup title triumphs, failed to progress beyond the group stage in this edition of the T20 showpiece following defeats to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka, but ended their campaign with a nine-wicket drubbing of Oman on Friday.
“Probably just the sense of a missed opportunity,” Marsh said when asked what’s going on in his mind as the team leaves the tournament earlier than expected. At the presentation ceremony after the game against Oman, the skipper added, “As I’ve said a few times, it’s a bitterly disappointed change room. Like every team, we built towards this for two years.
Australia’s loss against Zimbabwe is one of the key highlights of the tournament with the African team defeating the Kangaroos by 23 runs in a game where they outplayed the 2022 World Champions in every aspect of the game.
“Unfortunately, in a couple of key games, we just didn’t play our best cricket – and that’s tournament play. You lose a game like the one against Zimbabwe, and suddenly you’re under pressure. Credit to them, they played well, but we’re a very disappointed group right now,” Mitchell Marsh said.
The tournament is being held jointly by India and Sri Lanka and the conditions have been different in both countries. But Marsh refused to cite conditions as one of the reasons. “I don’t think conditions were the main issue. In Colombo, it was slow, but we had prepared for that. I still believe we had the squad to get the job done. But in tournament cricket, if you’re even slightly off, you can lose a game that puts you on the back foot.”
Australia’s long list of injuries
Australia also were plagued by injuries before and after start of the tournament. Premium pacer Pat Cummins was ruled out of the tournament before squad was announced and Josh Hazlewood wasn’t declared fit resulting in Steve Smith being added to the team as cover.
Skipper Marsh suffering internal testicular bleeding before the first game and had to miss the first two games of the group stage.
“Over the last couple of weeks, there were good opportunities for us, but we just weren’t able to deliver when it mattered most,” Marsh said.
