The time is nearing, and the excitement is round the corner. Players are toiling without a smirk and coaches rubbing the boards time and again and the clock ticking is heard so clearly that the minds of the players and the support staff always focus on that. The drills, the strategies, the executions, the foxing of the batters by the bowlers, the smacking of the bowlers by the batters, the distance a ball travels and comes back. Amidst all the silence in the world, the loudest noises comes when the World Cup starts at India on Oct 05 and the silence would stop at one end at the stroke of the lifting of the cup and would continue to roar on the other end. Welcome all to the squad preview of one of the deadliest sides coming into the World Cup, Australia.
Introduction:
Australia, otherwise called, the fiery dragons of the World cup, are coming on the back of a great warm up match yesterday, wherein the pace leader, Mitchell Starc picked a hat-trick against the Dutch and would be confident going into the World Cup. For the Aussies, World Cup in India would be a little haunting as they lost their last appearance here when Yuvraj and Raina finished things off in style and knocked them out in the quarterfinals. 12 years later, a new leader with a new set of players is here to keep their hands on the coveted trophy and would be vying for a 6th World Cup. The performance of the Aussies over the World Cups since it was introduced in 1975 relates to a saying, “If World Cup is an art, then Aussies are Picasso of it”.
The Aussies announced their squad for the ICC Men’s World Cup 2023 on 5th September 2023 with some uncertainties in their squad in Travis Head, one of the destructive batters getting injured and keeping a guessing game. They also named Glenn Maxwell, who was carrying an injury in their provisional squad. On the final day of naming the squad, they replaced Ashton Agar who was injured with Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head retaining his spot and would be used in the second half of the tournament. Interestingly, Marnus Labuschagne came into the scheme of things when he replaced Cameron Green as a concussion substitute in the recently concluded South Africa series. Labuschagne also made his Test debut as a concussion substitute and became one of the mainstays of the current Aussies test squad. Same happened now in ODI, so, hinting at what is going to happen? Time would only say that.
The squad picked by the Australia is:
Travis Head, David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Cameron Green, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins (C), Alex Carey (WK), Josh Inglis (WK), Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa
Probable playing XI:
David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (WK), Pat Cummins (C), Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa.
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Interesting facts about Australia Cricket team in WC:
(*) Australia played 98 matches in India, winning 55 and losing 38 and 5 ending in No-Result.
(*) Australia played 96 games in ODI WC winning 70 games, losing 24 and 2 ending in No-Result. They are 5-time champions, 2 times runners up, 1 time semi-finalist, 1 time quarter finalist, 1 time round robin stage team and 2 time group stage performers.
(*) Adam Zampa played 15 matches in India, taking 26 wickets at an average of 29.38 and an economy of 5.65.
(*) Josh Hazlewood played 9 matches in India, taking 12 wickets at an average of 27.17 and an economy of 5.47.
(*) Of all bowlers with 100 ODI wickets, Starc (2.01) is the only one to average more than two wickets a match. Rashid Khan (1.90), Trent Boult (1.89), Mohammed Shami (1.82), and Shane Bond (1.79) look close, until you realize that the Starc is roughly as far ahead of Rashid as Rashid is of Bond (Credits: Wisden India).
(*) Starc's bowling average of 14.81 is the best among bowlers with at least 20 wickets in WC. Indian pacer Mohammed Shami (15.70) trails him in this regard. The Aussie also owns the most four-plus wicket hauls in the competition (6). South Africa's Imran Tahir trails him with five. Among Australians, Shane Warne (4) trails him in this regard (Credits: newsbytesapp.com).
Players to watch out for:
Mitchell Starc:
The man who would be watched closely and would be one to feared. Cometh the WC, cometh the performance. Starc’s ODI numbers say this: 111 matches, 220 wickets, average of 22.24 and an economy of 5.13. His WC stats speaks volumes. The Australian pacer has raced to 49 wickets in 18 WC games (ER: 4.64). Starc is the joint-fifth-highest wicket-taker in the tournament history alongside Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas. His tally of three WC fifers is the most for any bowler. 6/28 read his best figures. The past two editions of the ODI WCs (2015 and 2019) saw Starc finish as the highest wicket-taker.
Steve Smith:
The dark horse from the Australian cricket team is a player to watch out for. Steve Smith’s WC numbers say: 20 matches, 834 runs, average of 46.33 and a scoring rate of 89.58. His temperament in the middle would be a big backbone for the team as he is the man to watch out for. His performance in ODI in India is as follows: 27 matches, 1260 runs, average of 54.78 and a strike rate of 102.94. Staggering, ain’t?.
Fixtures of Australia in WC 2023:
Sunday, October 8: India v Australia (Chennai), 2 pm
Thursday, October 12: Australia v South Africa (Lucknow), 2 pm
Monday, October 16: Australia v Sri Lanka (Lucknow), 2 pm
Friday, October 20: Australia v Pakistan (Bengaluru), 2 pm
Wednesday, October 25: Australia v Netherlands (Delhi), 2 pm
Saturday, October 28: Australia v New Zealand (Dharamsala), 10:30 am
Saturday, November 4: England v Australia (Ahmedabad), 2 pm
Tuesday, November 7: Australia v Afghanistan (Mumbai), 2 pm
Saturday, November 11: Australia v Bangladesh (Pune), 10:30 am
With some injuries and last-minute changes in the squad and at the back of two consecutive series defeats against South Africa and India, Australia would be all guns blazed and would be bringing in their A+ game in this WC. Watch out for thrillers and deadly strikes from the Aussies as they would lighting the WC with fire and crackers.
