Pallekele (Sri Lanka), Feb 20 (PTI) Australia captain Mitchell Marsh on Friday said that his team respects the criticism back home after its exit from the T20 World Cup in the group stage after shock loss to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.
The former champions are set to face a “forensic review” of their disappointing T20 World Cup campaign after the injury-ravaged team prematurely crashed out of the showpiece being co-hosted by India and Sri Lanka.
“Yeah, we certainly respect the noise back home when things don’t quite go to plan for us as a team. We sort of know that’s coming, we respect it,” Marsh said before Australia’s final group match against minnows Oman.
“We reflect on ways to get better moving forward. But the last couple of days, obviously, a really disappointed group to not make through the Super 8s.” Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka have progressed to the Super Eights as Australia failed to get past the group stage for the first time since 2009.
Australia, the limited overs titans with six ODI and one T20I World Cup titles, were eliminated in the group stage after Tuesday’s game between Zimbabwe and Ireland in Kandy was washed out, which paved the way for the much-improved African side’s entry into the Super Eights from Group B along with tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka.
An injury-ravaged Australia showed glimpses of their batting prowess in the first half of their innings in the loss against Sri Lanka, but it was their shock defeat to Zimbabwe that really blew their campaign apart, forcing the administrators back home to announce a “forensic review” of their performance once the players return to the country.
The forgettable campaign was marked by injuries to key players, poor form, and baffling selection calls. The result was that the 2021 winners failed to progress beyond the group stage for the first time since 2009.
Australia were without their star pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc, but they entered the tournament as one of the favourites, but things went downhill quickly following the reverse against Zimbabwe.
The team also lost captain Mitchell Marsh, also to injury, during the tournament, disturbing its balance to a great extent. Marsh did not the team’s first two matches, including An in-form Steve Smith was not picked and could only come in as cover once Hazlewood was declared ruled out just hours before their loss to Zimbabwe.
Selector Tony Dodemaide had said a full review of the performance would be done once the players are back home.
Australia are the co-hosts of the 2028 T20 World Cup along with New Zealand. PTI PDS AM PDS AM AM
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