Cricket World Cup: Australia’s selectors have backed themselves into a corner

The Wallabies were woeful at their World Cup and Australia’s men are on track to be worse at the ODI World Cup, DANIEL CHERNY identifies where it all went wrong.

Just when the Wallabies thought they had it sewn up, the men’s cricket side is shaping to make a late run at the biggest World Cup disaster by an Australian team in 2023.

The tournament is less than eight days old, and already Australia is almost out of the running.

Defeat to hosts India was one thing, but being crushed by South Africa was quite another. After a 134-run defeat, Australia’s heaviest in its proud World Cup history, the Aussies are now two wins and a hefty net run rate margin behind the Proteas, India, Pakistan and South Africa, and have a win to make up on England.

There is effectively no margin for error from here, and error has been Australia’s calling card across these first two matches.

Through a turbulent and winding build-up to this event, the team’s leaders sought to instil a sense of public calm. That everything was OK. That things would turn once everyone was fit again. That the goal was to be peaking come mid-November. That some bumps along the way should not be cause for alarm.

Cameron Green () and Alex Carey (C) look on from the sidelines during Australia’s defeat to Getty Images)

But in hindsight there was a lot to worry about. And one key decision between the two defeats betrayed that all was not well behind the scenes.

Generally in the George Bailey/Andrew McDonald era there has been a preparedness to err on the side of backing incumbency. That it would be better to support a player for one game too many rather than one too few.

It is in that vein that Australia backed David Warner for the Ashes despite dwindling form over two years and a middling Test record in England. To keep going back to the well with the big three quicks – across all formats – despite calls to tinker. Not to jump at shadows. Travis Head being omitted for the first Test in India was an exception.

No one played more one-day internationals for this Australian side in the four years leading up to the World Cup than Alex Carey.

(L-R) Alex Carey and Mitch Marsh have failed to find any form at the World Cup. Picture: Getty Images

He captained an undermanned team to a series win in the West Indies in 2021 when Aaron Finch was injured, and while Pat Cummins was preferred as captain when Finch retired last year, Carey remained in the side’s leadership group heading into this tournament.

While Carey’s form since the Jonny Bairstow incident was patchy, he made 99 against the Proteas in one of the warm-up series, and on the day the World Cup began, McDonald quashed a suggestion that Carey’s spot was under pressure from Josh Inglis.

“If something were to happen to Alex, then we’ve got a capable backup,” McDonald said of Inglis.

“But Alex Carey over a period of time has been ultra impressive.”

Carey faced two balls against India, gone for a duck as Ravindra Jadeja ran through Australia’s middle order. He was a touch sloppy with the gloves but hardly diabolical.

And then just like that, he was gone. In isolation, it was a reasonable call, because either side of that knock at Centurion Carey has struggled. But for longstanding plans – publicly reinforced a week ago – to be discarded so early in a tournament portrayed a sense of desperation. That all was far from right. It was the opposite of calm.

Josh Inglis was dismissed by Kagiso Rabada of South Africa for just five runs. Picture: Getty Images

Inglis dropped a catch and had his off stump desecrated by Kagiso Rabada for five. Now what? Surely they can’t go back to Carey after just one game.

In picking the more creative and explosive Inglis, Australia was reaching to plug a gap in an imbalanced and underperforming squad. It has been a recurring theme stemming back all the way to Finch’s decision to retire less than 15 months out from the World Cup.

That left Australia grasping to find a new captain. Cummins, despite his enormous workload and the likelihood he would have to be rested frequently, was given the nod, effectively locking in Australia’s third-best one-day paceman into the XI in Asia, where spin is at a premium.

The team won a series in India earlier this year, sans Cummins, who was back in Australia mourning the loss of his mother.

By playing Cummins, Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in the same XI, Marcus Stoinis becomes a barrel-chested square peg in a round hole.

Marcus Stoinis drops a catch chance to dismiss David Miller of South Africa during the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup India 2023 between Australia and South Africa at BRSABVE Cricket Stadium. Picture: Getty Images

Stoinis is averaging less than 17 with the bat in ODIs since the last World Cup. That might be passable if he is being used regularly as a bowler, but as a No. 7 batter who bowls an over here or there it is nowhere near enough. The other option in that spot is Cameron Green, who has barely fired a shot with bat or ball since the start of the Ashes.

Injuries to Head and Ashton Agar last month further threw things out of whack. On the batting front it has meant the plan to go in with only one of Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagbne in the anchor role was abandoned.

From a bowling perspective, it has led Australia to throw all its spin eggs in the Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell baskets. Backing Maxwell to play the role of a frontline tweaker is one of the few things that has worked so far for Australia, but playing sore, Zampa has been well short of his best.

The same can be said of Mitch Marsh, who is as cold right now as he was hot at the start of the South African white-ball tour.

Marsh fatefully dropped Virat Kohli at Chennai and yet Australia’s fielding somehow got much worse in Lucknow, with the side spilling five catches and even Maxwell making a simple ground fielding mistake.

It is a dossier of despair for the five-time World Champions, who as of late Thursday night in India were sandwiched on the World Cup standings by those giants of world cricket: Netherlands and Afghanistan.