Australia – A Lost Outfit?

When was the last time Australia went into a tournament without the favorites tag? And, when was the last time they made a first round exit in a world cup like tournament? It sounds very unusual that we associate these questions with one of the most dominant teams the game has seen. For answers you should dig a little deep into the history books. Such was the ill-fate for Australia in this ICC World Twenty20 in England. Courtesy – a batting massacre from Chris Gayle and a disciplined team work from Sri Lanka.

Talking about history, if you are still wondering when, the answer is the Benson and Hedges world Cup in 1992 held in Australia and New Zealand. They lost four of their eight games in the league stage. Interestingly all four teams they lost to - New Zealand, South Africa, England and Pakistan qualified for semi-finals. Here is an exception to it –Australia lost the quarter-final matches against India in ICC Champions Trophy in 1998 held in Dhaka and in 2000 held in Nairobi (These two editions of Champions Trophy are knock-out style tournaments and Australia lost their first match, i.e. quarter-finals, to India on both occasions).

Coming back to the present, starting from two wickets in the first over by Jerome Taylor till the wide ball signaling a Sri Lankan win, nothing went right for the mighty Aussies. They appeared never in the competition as they never were aggressive with their efforts. Australia is known for their ability to fight back even in the rarest of possibilities, but in the two matches none of their middle-order batsmen tried to reconstruct the innings after the loss of early wickets, and the ones who tried doing so, were never playing a T20 style cricket. One felt that they lacked the skills to play T20 cricket as they allowed too many dot balls despite the need for quick runs.

Similarly during the second innings of both their matches, they allowed the opposition batsmen to dictate terms without fighting back. Against Sri Lanka they tried defending the total allowing Tillakaratne Dilshan to score freely, rather than attacking, an unlikely Australian approach. Against West Indies when Chris Gayle went berserk, Aussies couldn’t do much with their monopolized pace attack. Their shoulders dropped just half way through the second innings on both the occasions.

Undoubtedly Australia has lost their venom, venom in the form of match-winners like Glen McGrath, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. Though Ricky Ponting has time and again rubbished the fact that Aussies are struggling to cope with the retirements of these big men, only time will tell how much of it is true. The ‘Ashes’ is their next stop.