Image Source- AP
With only three games left until the ODI World Cup,
Australia’s bowlers have acknowledged they need to perform better among a
number of issues they need to address.
On their route to a sixth straight ODI loss in Indore,
the struggling bowlers took yet another beating. They lost 399 for 5 in 50
overs after choosing to bowl first for the fourth time in those five games
after winning the toss.
It followed losses of 416, 338, and 315 in the
previous three matches in South Africa. Abbott, a participant in three of those
four matches, including Indore, when he gave up 91 runs from ten overs,
acknowledged that his team’s performance was woefully inadequate before the
World Cup.
“We’ve obviously just not executed as well as we
would have liked,” Abbott said after the loss. “It’s all well and
good to say that we’ll take learnings out of these games and stuff like that,
but we do need to execute better as a whole.
“It showed today when we were bowling, and it was
a little bit the same in South Africa as well, as soon as we missed the stumps
we were punished.”
With just one ODI and two practise matches left until
their debut World Cup contest against India in Chennai, Australia will point to
the fact that they haven’t had their first-choice attack on the ground for those
five games. However, that in and of itself is a huge issue. The Australian
administration has discussed the length of the World Cup campaign and the
desire to avoid exhausting the players before the competition. However, there
is a chance of being significantly undercooked.
Although he has missed the last seven ODIs due to a
groyne injury, Mitchell Starc will be a vital boost to the faltering attack if
he is able to play in the third game against India on Wednesday. Both Glenn
Maxwell (ankle/paternity leave) and Ashton Agar (calf/paternity leave) have
been absent, and as Agar is still in Australia, there is some uncertainty about
both players’ fitness. Prior to his flight to India on September 20, when he
batted and bowled four overs, Maxwell did play a 50-over practise match for
Victoria. However, Maxwell has not played since his arrival in India last
Friday.
However, quite a few of Australia’s starting attack
have continued to play even without those individuals. Three of the four games
in which they have let up 315 or more have been played by Josh Hazlewood and
Adam Zampa. Although Hazlewood was Australia’s greatest bowler on Sunday, he
had twice in South Africa given up his worst ODI stats. In those four matches,
Australia’s banker Zampa has been their most costly bowler, giving up 8.33 runs
per over in the 30 overs he has bowled, including his record-setting 0 for 113
at Centurion.
Over the course of the four games, Australia’s death
bowling has been dreadful, allowing 96 runs in the final ten overs in
Potchefstroom, 173 runs in Centurion, 113 runs in Johannesburg, and finally 103
runs in Indore. It was compounded too by a slow over-rate penalty with
Abbott having to bowl the 50th over with only four men outside the circle.