3 biggest reasons behind Australia's early exit in 2024 T20 World Cup ft. sloppy fielding
Two days after their win over Australia, Afghanistan took another historic step when they beat Bangladesh in an absolute humdinger to march into the semi-final of the Men's T20 World Cup 2024. After India defeated Australia in the morning match, the equation was pretty much straightforward for Afghanistan. They needed to win for a place in the top four and they came out on top against the Bangla Tigers.
With the result, Australia have been knocked out - India will take on England, while South Africa will face an inspired Afghanistan in the two semi-finals. It was a rather bizarre World Cup for Australia - from bossing the group stage to huffing and puffing in the Super 8, the zing was missing from their campaign and now, they need to go back to the drawing board and look for the missing pieces.
Here we take a look at 3 biggest reasons behind Australia's early exit in the 2024 T20 World Cup.
#3 Insipid fielding
When Australia play cricket with their chests puffed out they do so by electric fielding. However, when they were stunned by Afghanistan, it was this very fielding that let them down and allowed Afghanistan to add 25-30 more runs towards the back end.
This was not an isolated match - they were sloppy even in the final league game against Scotland and it was pointed out by captain Mitchell Marsh.
Ibrahim and Gurbaz were well within themselves as they paced the innings, but Australia were quite giving on the field. First, Adam Zampa dropped Ibrahim on 11 and then Stoinis missed a return catch when he was on 32.
#2 Tactical miss by Mitchell Marsh
Mitchell Marsh opted to bowl first against Afghanistan on a surface that was expected to get slower as the game progressed. And then he benched Mitchell Starc and played Ashton Agar to add depth to his spinning stocks - two contrasting moves that screamed ‘muddled thinking’.
Starc invariably gets the early breakthrough and this was missed as Gurbaz and Ibrahim added a solid base for Afghanistan. And Ashton Agar would have been far more potent had he got a weary track to fire in his darts and target the stumps.
For a side that relies a lot on data and match-ups, this miss by Marsh proved costly in the end for Australia as they saw Rashid Khan tie them in knots during their chase.
#1 Inability to counter spin
Australia never really countered spin in both the games that they dropped in the Super 8 stage. Against Afghanistan, they struggled against Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi and then were knocked out by the slower deliveries of Gulbadin Naib. On sluggish surfaces, the Australian batters never got any pace to work with and this trend continued even against India.
Chasing down 205, Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh were racing along and yet, when the pitch slowed down and the ball became softer, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel tightened the stranglehold, and then Jasprit Bumrah delivered the knockout punch by taking out Travis Head - with a slow off-break.
Axar Patel conceded 21 runs in his 3 overs and accounted for Marcus Stoinis, while Kuldeep Yadav flummoxed the Australian batting with his variations in speed and ended with figures of 2 for 24 in his four overs.