Castries [Saint Lucia], June 24 (ANI): Ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup Super Eights clash against India, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald said that the players are well aware of where things went wrong during the loss to Afghanistan and need to be at their best against their Asian rivals, especially after the tiredness of playing Afghanistan a day back.
India and Australia take on each other in a must-win clash at Saint Lucia on Monday. India is at the top of Group One with two wins in two games and have four points. They won their previous game against Bangladesh by 50 runs. On the other hand, Australia is in the second place with a win and loss, giving them two points. They lost their previous game to Afghanistan by 21 runs in a shocker.
Speaking ahead of the game in a press conference on Sunday, McDonald said about the short time between Afghanistan and India matches, which involves air travel, “I mean, once the draw comes out, you are well aware of what you need to do and, in your planning, and preparation and that goes into it months before you get here and we feel like as I said we have made some good decisions in our planning and prep and coming in and yeah, we have got another challenge with a short turnaround. Every team’s facing that, so yeah, it will be recovery mode tonight and tomorrow. Give the boys a bit of space and yeah, we would not drill into it too much tonight (loss to Afghanistan and lack of recovery time).
“As you said, it is pretty early in the morning. So, getting that information in will happen in the morning of the Indian game. So, a bit of space. The boys know where we went wrong. They are an experienced group. But there is no doubt when we come back together on the morning of the Indian game, we need to be at our best. And to be at our best, we need recovery. And if people do not recover in time, then clearly, we will make decisions based around that. But so far so good, everyone has pulled up well,” he added.
Speaking about leaving pacer Mitchell Starc out of the playing eleven against Afghanistan and playing Ashton Agar, McDonald said that though it is difficult leaving Starc out, the conditions during the match suited Agar since the team needed more than eight overs of spin on that pitch.
“We are going to need options and flexibility, but it is always a difficult decision. You never know whether it is going to be right or wrong, but I thought Ashton bowled incredibly well. He used his skill, some good arm balls, found some purchase early, and he made it tricky to navigate through those first few overs, and we got two out of the power play, which then set up, clearly, the bowling from that end with him and Zamps (Adam Zampa) operating. Unfortunately, we were not able to take those early wickets, had a couple of opportunities and no doubt we will speak about the fielding,” he added.
McDonald also expressed some disappointment with the fielding effort during the defeat to Afghanistan, but also lauded their openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran for laying down the platform for an around-par score.
“And then we fought back well through the middle and the back end. I thought we were excellent at the back end. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, we are disappointed with the standards in the field. Is this group capable of more than that? 100 per cent and we have seen that. So, we have got a short turnaround now, we have got to really shift our focus into that recovery mode. We have got a travel day and then get ourselves sharp for India and it is going to be a huge game and we have been in this situation before, all too familiar,” he added.
Speaking about playing in a must-win contest, McDonald said that given how competitive this tournament has been, India and South Africa are also among teams facing the same situations.
“There is no doubt net run rate there will be plenty of discussions around hypothesizing around that, around what it looks like and we played the second last game and Bangladesh play Afghanistan the last game, Is that an advantage and things like that, but ultimately, we are going to take care of what is in our control and that is India no doubt one of the tournament favourites. We had like to think we are up there in the conversation but yeah, we are going to get to work in the next game and yeah, shift it pretty quickly,” he added.
Squads:
India Squad: Rohit Sharma(c), Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant(w), Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal, Sanju Samson, Mohammed Siraj, Yashasvi Jaiswal
Australia Squad: Travis Head, David Warner, Mitchell Marsh(c), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Matthew Wade(w), Pat Cummins, Ashton Agar, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc, Josh Inglis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis. (ANI)
