CHENNAI: A heavy defeat at the beginning of a marquee tournament may dent the morale of a lot of teams, but not a champion side like Australia, the most successful nation in men’s ODI World Cup history by far.
The five-time title-winners were behind for much of their opener against hosts India here on Sunday and eventually suffered a six-wicket loss.
While the Pat Cummins-led side have stumbled at the first hurdle, they are pacing themselves to ace the World Cup test, which is undoubtedly a marathon and not a sprint.
Their batting stalwart Steve Smith emphasised that the team will reflect on the below-par performance but will not sweat over the shaky start to the event.
“Definitely, we can learn a bit from this game. We, as a group, have talked about playing according to the surface that we are on. In tournament play, you do not want to be peaking too early,” said Smith, Australia’s top-scorer against India with a well-constructed 46.
“But you obviously got to do enough to make your way into the semifinals. You want to be playing your best cricket at the end. Hopefully, we can turn it around.”
Up next for Australia is a tough battle against South Africa, who decimated Sri Lanka by 102 runs in their opening match in New Delhi on Saturday.
Speaking about the contest in challenging conditions in Lucknow on Thursday, Smith said: “South Africa have got a good side and are playing well. We watched the game the other day, it was a pretty nice surface in Delhi. They were able to post a massive total (428/5). It is important to see how the surface is (in Lucknow) and how we play on that.”
If Australia are to turn their fortunes around, they will have to strike the perfect balance.
Asked if the team has found the best combination yet, Smith replied: “We’ve got a few options and ways we can go about. Potentially, Marcus Stoinis is back on the table. If we want to play eight batters, including a few allrounders, and things like that... we will wait and see what the selectors want to do.”
