After its meek surrender against England in its opening game, a struggling Australia will have to work on its batting frailties when it takes on a confident New Zealand in a Group A match of the Champions Trophy here on Wednesday.
Australia, without its regular skipper Michael Clarke, proved no match for the English side, suffering a huge defeat to start its campaign on the wrong foot.
And, Clarke will miss the game against New Zealand too as he is yet to fully recover from his back injury, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Tuesday.
“Michael is continuing to have intensive treatment in London, and whilst he is making good progress, he has not improved sufficiently enough to play the game against New Zealand on Wednesday,” said CA physiotherapist Alex Kountouris in a statement.
“We will continue to monitor his progress and determine his availability for next week’s final group game against Sri Lanka,” he added.
With Clarke absent, it will be a big test for stand-in skipper George Bailey to turn Australia’s fortunes around.
Australia bowlers Clint McKay, James Faulkner and Shane Watson did a decent job in restricting England to 269 when it was looking at a 300-plus score at one stage but it still needs to add more sting to its attack.
The Aussie batsmen could not pose any threat to the England bowlers, who strangulated them with both pace and spin.
Barring skipper Bailey and all-rounder James Faulkner, none of the batsmen were up to the mark. What was baffling was most of them got starts but later blew those away.
Team composition
The two-time champion, hence, will have to re-think team composition as another defeat will pave the way for an early exit from the tournament.
New Zealand, on the other hand, is high on confidence having started its campaign on a winning note, beating Sri Lanka by one wicket.
