The Australian players just rode back to the hotel after a washout in Pindi. Having already secured one win, in their opener, the rain interference does not threaten them too much. And that only makes them more grateful for how they trampled England the other day.
For once, coming into a mega-event, Australia were far from their usual ruthless selves. They had lost their entire pace attack, their captain, one of their most explosive batters, and an all-rounder who would have been very crucial to their team combination in the tournament. The effects of these absences were immediate. The Aussies lost their Champions Trophy build-up series to Sri Lanka.
So that was it. The world thought. Australia’s Achilles’ heel had been exposed. Without their core players, they would not be the same every-tournament-winning side. Everyone was subtly pleased about this. And why wouldn’t they be? It’s frustrating, after all, to scramble for a world title for months, only to watch Australia swoop in and soar away with it. But not this time. They had an inexperienced bowling attack, a new captain, and a side apparently low on spirits It should be easy to halt them.
Rarely has anyone been more at mistake in the history of mankind.
All it took for Australia to rejuvenate was… checks notes …a 351-run total they were asked to chase. Not the most orthodox route, yes. But it worked. It always does for them. Regardless of who they have on the team. Regardless of venues. Regardless of opposition. Regardless of formats. Only this time the script was tweaked to fit what they had.
If Australia had dominated on the back of their bowlers in the past, their batters took over this time. Chasing 351, even in this age, is no walk in the park. But Aussies always knew that their fast bowling attack, with a grand total of 17 caps between them, would struggle. And they also knew exactly what to do when this happens: let their strength mask their weakness.
In Alex Carey’s words,
“It’s an inexperienced bowling attack, there’s no hiding away from that, but around that we’ve got some experience with our legspinner Adam Zampa, Glenn Maxwell who’s really smart when he bowls, and Steve Smith who’s a fantastic captain. The way that Steve Smith uses the bowlers is a strength of ours. He is a great captain tactically, and he reads the play really well. So I’m still really confident with 50 overs of bowling, however that looks for us.”
But if you think that means the inexperienced lot wont be trusted to chip in when the need arises, you are gravely mistaken. This is Australia we are talking about. Carey explained that the job for the batters is to relieve the bowlers of more than they can endure while also empowering them to do perform at a calibre that rivals the OG pace trio.
“If we are to bat first throughout the tournament,” Carey said. “I’ll back our boys to defend, hopefully a good score of 300-plus, but if not, Nathan Ellis has got a lot of tricks, he’s got a lot of good slower bowls; Spencer Johnson’s really damaging up the top; so is Ben Dwarshuis. And you’ve got Sean Abbott ready to go as well. We’ve come into this tournament really confident that our bowling attack will still do a fantastic job without the big three [Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood], and hopefully as a batting group we can score as many runs and make it easy for our bowlers.”
They now have only one game left to play, and it’s against Afghanistan. The last time both teams faced off, Glenn Maxwell mistook cricket for a one-man game. Things should be more straightforward this time for Australia, with one foot already in the semi-finals. But even if they were not, they know how to stage a comeback.
It’s embedded in their DNA.
