How much stock to put in Australia’s surprise 49-run loss to Sri Lanka less than a week out from the start of the Champions Trophy, one of the few pieces of silverware not residing at Jolimont headquarters?
Quite possibly, a similar care-factor to that shown to the long-time ugly cousin of the ICC event family by Australian cricket over the years.
Momentum in international cricket is a dwindling, fickle thing. Players turn heavy defeats and shock losses around far quicker in the modern game.
Remember the worldly weight apparently residing on the Test side after being humbled in Perth? Six weeks later they emerged without a care and the Border-Gavaskar Trophy for the first time in a decade.
The numbers around Australia’s Champions Trophy campaign though – the tournament hasn’t been held since 2017, and Australia hasn’t won since 2009 – well, you wouldn’t exactly be rushing to buy up big.
No less than five injury and retirement withdrawals from the original 15-man squad announced for the tournament in Pakistan and UAE have left legspinner Adam Zampa as the only frontline bowler still standing.
Skipper Pat Cummins (ankle) and Josh Hazlewood (hip) have been joined by pace spearhead Mitchell Starc in watching this one from afar, one of Australia’s best-ever white-ball bowlers requesting privacy around his withdrawal on personal grounds.
Between them, the trio have taken 525 ODI wickets from 308 games. The remaining fast-bowlers in Australia’s 15-man squad – Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis and Spencer Johnson – boast just 46 scalps from 39 combined appearances.
All-rounders Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Marsh are far more formidable and relied upon with the willow these days, but the former’s surprise retirement and the latter’s back injury remove another 164 games worth of experience and know-how, as well as another 105 ODI wickets.
Ample responsibility now falls to Zampa, who excelled with 23 World Cup wickets (second only to India’s Mohammed Shami) in India 18 months ago.
Adam Zampa will lead Australia’s attack at the Champions Trophy.Credit: Getty
Pakistan’s flatter pitches promise the pain that is largely a bowler’s lot in modern one-day cricket.
At the same time Australia was crumbling to be all-out for 165 in Colombo, Pakistan recorded the highest run-chase in their history, easily mowing down a South African total of 352 in Lahore with six wickets and six balls to spare.
From the warm-up tri-series tournament between the home nation, New Zealand and South Africa, team totals of 330, 252, 304, 308, 352 and 355 point to a batsman’s paradise awaiting.
Travis Head will be back from being rested from the Sri Lankan ODIs as a formidable opening prospect in any conditions, and his return can’t come soon enough given the underwhelming returns of Jake Fraser-McGurk and Matt Short of late.
Travis Head will make a welcome return to Australia’s batting line-up.Credit: Getty Images
Captain Steve Smith, Head, Glenn Maxwell and Josh Inglis round out a more than competitive batting order, but Australia are likely to need all the runs they can get, and then some, given the bowling stocks at Smith’s disposal.
Perhaps the greatest hope ahead of a tournament-opening clash with England on February 23, is the English themselves.
A 142-run trouncing at the hands of India has made for a seventh loss in eight outings for Jos Butler’s side going into the Champions Trophy.
Pressure is mounting as the likes of Kevin Piertesen and Ravi Shastri question training and an apparent lack of it from the English tourists, though these criticisms are dismissed when it turns out England’s preparation has been pretty similar to the Indian side belting them up and down the country.
Australia’s Champions Trophy squad
Steve Smith (captain), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa.
Opener Ben Duckett’s response to the run of losses: “This is a massive series but the Champions Trophy is the big competition.
“If we lose 3-0 to India, I don’t care as long as we beat them in the final of the Champions Trophy. We probably won’t look back on this if we do the business in that competition.”
For the most part, Duckett’s not wrong. Though you’d hardly be putting your hard-earned on England as it stands.
“Big” is not the right adjective for the Champions Trophy either, unless describing the ICC broadcast deal that has delivered its return to the calendar. For Australian audiences, the tournament is every chance of being forgotten before it even starts given it will reside solely on Amazon Prime.
The last tournament under such broadcast arrangements, the 2024 T20 World Cup in an unfriendly Caribbean time zone, slipped by largely unnoticed despite Australia’s noteworthy exit before the semi-finals.
Typically, overseas tournaments are noticed most by the cricketing public when Australia falls short of expectations, and people wake up wondering how and why.
On the field, Australia can take a similarly bullish approach to Duckett, but their recent ODI numbers don’t make for great reading either.
