3 players whose form hurt Australia the most in 2024 T20 World Cup ft. Mitchell Marsh
The Australian team suffered a shocking exit from the 2024 T20 World Cup after they failed to be potent enough with their performances in the Super 8 phase. Although the Mitchell Marsh-led side had a clean 4-0 record in the group stage, they lost two of their three games in the Super 8, resulting in them getting knocked out of the tournament.
The surprising loss for Australia came against Afghanistan, where the bowling unit was decent to restrict the opposition to 148. However, the batting unit crumbled under pressure from the charged Afghanistan bowlers and were bundled out for 127.
Their recent outing against India saw them concede their joint-most highest total of 205 in T20 World Cup history. In response, only Travis Head (76) matched intent to chase down the score while a few batters perished for low scores as Australia lost by 24 runs.
The team's exit had various reasons to think of: the inconsistency of batters, bad fielding and irregular resting of key pace bowlers, which dampened the team's momentum.
On that note, let's take a look at the three players, whose lackluster form played a major part in Australia losing out on the semi-final spot of T20 World Cup 2024.
#1 David Warner
Legendary opening batter David Warner's final ICC event saw him have a mediocre run. He started off the tournament by scoring 56 off 51 balls against Oman and followed it up with a quickfire 39 off 16 against England.
However, Warner returned with low scores against Namibia (20 off 8) and Scotland (1 off 4) ahead of the Super 8 stage. The southpaw contributed 53* off 35 against Bangladesh to secure an impressive 28-run victory.
But Warner failed to provide a strong start to the Men in Yellow against Afghanistan (3 off 8) and India (6 off 6), resulting in the team ending up on the losing side.
#2 Mitchell Marsh
A lot was expected from the 2021 T20 World Cup final hero, who also had the responsibility of leading the Australian side in the presence of Pat Cummins. However, Mitchell Marsh didn't live up to the expectations with the bat and also on the field.
Marsh accumulated 125 runs in seven innings at a disappointing average of 20.83, with a top knock of 37 off 28 coming against India. In most of the games, he lacked the confidence required by a top-order batter to increase the tempo of the side in the powerplay overs.
Surprisingly, he dropped three catches against Scotland, with the team accounting for six - the most in T20 World Cup history. The Aussie skipper also missed a straightforward catch of India's Hardik Pandya, who went on to score 27* off 17.
#3 Mitchell Starc
Coming into the 2024 T20 World Cup side, Mitchell Starc was filled with confidence after taking 17 wickets for champions Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL 2024.
Starc began the tournament with figures of 2/20 off three overs against Oman. However, he remained wicketless against England (0/37 off three overs) and Scotland (0/31 off four overs).
The left-arm pacer took 1/21 off four overs against Bangladesh to start off the Super 8 stage on a decent note but his ability to secure consistent breakthroughs was still missing.
In his most recent outing, Starc was hammered for four sixes and a four by Rohit Sharma. Although he cleaned up Sharma and dismissed Suryakumar Yadav, Starc finished the game with figures of 2/45 off four overs, which hurt the team's chances of winning the game.