Chance for Australia to discover its best form

Steve Smith is expected to be all right despite suffering a blow to the hand in the nets.

March 03, 2015 11:30 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 05:15 pm IST - Perth

Australia’s World Cup began with a thunderous victory in Melbourne but its campaign has since stuttered, during a fortnight of natural and man-made drama.

Cyclone Marcia battered the Queensland coast to wash out Australia’s second pool ‘A’ game, against Bangladesh, handing both teams a point each. And in Auckland last week, New Zealand secured a tense one-wicket win to leave Australia with three points from three matches.

It is a situation that looks worse than it is, but a hefty win over Afghanistan here on Wednesday is essential to rebuilding the home side’s confidence. It is a chance for Australia to discover its best form ahead of Sunday’s pivotal clash with Sri Lanka in Sydney.

In the aftermath of the loss at Eden Park, Michael Clarke called his side’s batting ‘extremely poor’, feeling that his men had attacked senselessly rather than shown caution against the moving ball.

In Dawlat Zadran, Hamid Hassan and the long-haired Shapoor Zadran, Afghanistan has pace to test batsmen but the trio is unlikely to cause problems of the sort Trent Boult and Tim Southee did. Australia’s batsmen need big runs to put them at ease before the competition’s knock-out stages.

Steve Smith is expected to be all right despite suffering a blow to the hand in the nets, while the injured Pat Cummins should be replaced by Josh Hazlewood. James Faulkner’s return from a side strain poses an interesting problem for Australia. The allrounder is a terrific one-day cricketer but dropping Shane Watson or Mitchell Marsh to accommodate him will not be easy.

Afghanistan should be wary of facing the combined fury of Mitchell Johnson (who went at 11 an over on Saturday) and Mitchell Starc at the WACA. The win over Scotland — no more than expected — showed that its batsmen, with the exception of Samiullah Shenwari and the opener Javed Ahmadi, needed to learn to be patient.

Today, it has a World Cup win under its belt. Its rise has been phenomenal but Australia at the WACA could have come too early.

The teams:Australia (from): Michael Clarke (capt.), George Bailey, David Warner, Aaron Finch, Shane Watson, Steven Smith, Brad Haddin (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Xavier Doherty.

Afghanistan: Mohammad Nabi (capt.), Afsar Zazai (wk), Usman Ghani, Aftab Alam, Asghar Stanikzai, Dawlat Zadran, Gulbadin Naib, Hamid Hasan, Javed Ahmadi, Najibullah Zadran, Nasir Jamal, Nawroz Mangal, Shapoor Zadran, Samiullah Shenwari and Shafiqullah Shafiq.

Umpires: Kumar Dharmasena and Michael Gough.

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.