Australia captain Pat Cummins admitted yesterday the five-time champions have “got to start winning and start winning quick” to rescue their faltering World Cup campaign.
Australia have lost both their opening matches, by six wickets to hosts India and 134 runs to South Africa, their heaviest defeat at a World Cup.
Despite boasting the batting firepower of David Warner and Steve Smith, they have yet to post a total of 200.
“We’re obviously 0-2, so we’ve got to start winning and start winning quick,” said Cummins ahead of today’s clash against Sri Lanka in Lucknow.
“Every game now becomes almost like a final. You’ve got to win just about all of them.”
The figures so far make for grim reading for Australia.
None of their batsmen have made a half-century with Smith top-scoring with 46 against India and Marnus Labuschagne matching that modest mark in the rout by South Africa.
They have also been hamstrung by their fielding performances.
Against India, Virat Kohli was dropped on 12 before he went on to make a match-winning 85.
Had the catch been taken, India, chasing just 200 to win, would have been teetering at 20-4.
It got worse against South Africa where five chances went down.
Needing 312 to win, Australia slumped to 70-6 and were reduced to a damage limitation exercise in an effort to shore up their run rate.
“No doubt we haven’t been up to the standard that we like to hold,” said Cummins. “We’ve been off the mark and been outplayed both games. It’s not ideal at all. I think everyone was a little bit flat after the last game.”
Australia are second from bottom of the 10-team table, behind even the Netherlands and propped up only by Afghanistan.
Today, they tackle fellow winless side Sri Lanka who have had no problems scoring runs - 326 against South Africa and 344 in the game with Pakistan.
Unfortunately for the 1996 champions, they conceded a World Cup record 428 to the Proteas while Pakistan’s pursuit to win by six wickets was the highest successful chase in tournament history.
Sri Lanka came out on top 3-2 in a five-match series with Australia on home soil in June last year. However, Australia eased to a comfortable 87-run win when they sides met at the 2019 World Cup at The Oval.
“Looking back at 2019, India and South Africa were the two teams that we lost to in the round games there,” added Cummins.
“I think in the last year, they’re kind of the two teams that we’ve had the most trouble against.
“So the opportunity now is we’ve got some teams we haven’t played for a while that we’ve had a lot of success against and we can be really confident when we go out there.”
Mendis happy to take over as
Sri Lanka captain
Sri Lanka’s Kusal Mendis will not change his aggressive batting approach after taking over the captaincy two games into the World Cup when team mate Dasun Shanaka was ruled out of the tournament with injury.
Shanaka sustained a thigh muscle injury in Tuesday’s six-wicket loss to Pakistan and the 32-year-old will need three weeks to recover, with Chamika Karunaratne replacing him in the squad.
Mendis is among the tournament’s top scorers with 198 runs in two games and his first match as captain will be today’s clash with Australia who are also without a win in the group stage. “I am very happy to have the captaincy and I hope to play in the future in the same way as I have played so far, because I don’t have anything to change,” Mendis told reporters yesterday.
“I’ve had previous experience as a captain. I’ve also held the position of captain in practice matches here. Speaking about my batting, I aim to maintain this level of performance. I prefer playing in a manner that aligns with the team’s requirements.”
Mendis said Sri Lanka would miss all-rounder Shanaka, describing his absence as a “significant disadvantage”.
“As a team, we deeply regret his absence. Moreover, when we previously lost Wanidu Hasaranga, we made an addition to the team to compensate for his absence,” Mendis said.