Australian players putting hands up for World Cup selection
Their one-day form hasn’t been sparkling, but Australia is starting to look like a team ready to lift a gear in the mid-year World Cup in England.
Cricket
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You know a World Cup campaign is finally heading in the right direction when people are starting to talk about who could miss out rather than who, on earth, could be put in.
It may sound strange given Australia has won just three of its past 16 50-over games but no matter what happens in the deciding match in its series against India in Melbourne on Friday, Australia is starting to look like a team ready to lift a gear in the mid-year World Cup in England.
To be one-all after two epic arm wrestles with India with a side missing Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, Travis Head, David Warner, Steve Smith, Mitchell Marsh, Chris Lynn and D’Arcy Short is a sign of the suddenly intense competition for places in Australia’s 15-man World Cup squad.
Of Australia’s two major campaigns in England this year — the World Cup and the Ashes — the World Cup is the one in which Australia is more likely to surprise even though its top XI remains a mystery of many parts.
Sometimes in a World Cup campaign a team can suddenly click on a winning formula, whereas, in a five Test Ashes series on foreign soil, all frailties are generally laid bare and brutally exposed.
Australia is rated fourth favourite for the Cup with Ladbrokes at $7, sitting behind England ($3), India ($4.33) and South Africa ($6.50), odds which accurately reflect Australia’s prospects as team not to be dismissed but one which does not deserve to be favourite and needs to find itself in a hurry.
The squad is starting to take some shape with Jason Behrendorff and Jhye Richardson emerging in the Indian series as key alternatives to the Test pace trio.
Peter Handscomb, a solid player of spin in a tournament expected to feature plenty of it, has been sound at the crease and energetic in the field and could fill the role of back-up keeper to Alex Carey.
Skipper Aaron Finch is in poor form and becoming a worry but Shaun Marsh, for all of his Test woes, has been in superb white ball touch and Nathan Lyon, while not shooting the lights out, is regaining white ball rhythm.
Given England’s recent run of dam-busting 50 over scores of 320 or more on home soil, Australia are under pressure to choose a few biff and barge batsmen such as Short but history is a sobering reminder that poise as much as power wins World Cups.
The World Cup’s top 10 run-scorers list is stocked with champion batsmen who excelled at Test level such as Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Jacques Kallis, AB de Villiers and Ricky Ponting.
There is barely a Flash Harry on the list.
The last time the World Cup was played in England, in 1999, the highest run-scorers were hard-nosed Test performers Rahul Dravid, Steve Waugh, Sourav Ganguly and Mark Waugh.
As defending titleholders Australia will be under pressure but the greater pressure will come on highly-fancied teams like South Africa and England who have never won it.
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