Australia surge towards number 1 ranking

Simply OUTSTANDING. It is words like these which would best describe the game that was witnessed at Eden Park where Australia chased down an incredible 243 runs to turn around their limited overs fortunes. 

For what was an extremely poor ODI series performance from Australia, there is no doubt that the new management and faces to the T20 team have certainly brought a much fresher outlook. However, with the likes of Steve Smith, Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood, I thought that the Australian team looked like it had a lack of reliability and depth. But what Australia has shown in this series is that they have finally worked out a batting team that has plenty to offer. 

With the likes of Chris Lynn, Glen Maxwell, Darcy Short and Aaron Finch lighting up the T20 arena, it finally looks like that T20 cricket is stabilising in Australia considering a shock series performance against Sri Lanka last summer. 

With 4 consecutive wins in the series and now a rapid incline into the T20 rankings, there is no doubt that Australia has their eyes on these players for the 2020 ICC T20 World Cup. Whilst I am a strong believer that Aaron Finch’s sacking as T20 captain was the wrong move and only hurt Australian T20 cricket, I do think that David Warner has to lead the side incredibly well. Despite not performing to a satisfactory standard, the intent that is shown in the field placements and the aggression shown by the other batsmen has been something that Australia certainly did not show in the ODI series. 

It would be fair to say that Australia’s highlight of the series came to final qualifier against New Zealand at Eden Park. This game certainly highlighted the glory of T20 format cricket. With it primarily being a game of runs rather than wickets, a day consisting of 485 runs in 38.5 overs demonstrated why T20 is a brilliant spectacle that is reaching new limits. With a WASP predicted the score of 170, New Zealand burst their way to a mammoth and “un-chaseable” score of 243 courtesy of a Martin Guptill 105 and Colin Munro 76 which certainly exposed the Australian bowling attack. 

But what looked like an overconfident New Zealand bowling attack quickly reversed on them quickly as David Warner found form for the first time in the limited over summer. A brutal 59 of 24 from the skipper laid the foundation for the remaining batsmen to continue the insane hard hitting. Watching Darcy Short throughout the Big Bash League, it was only a matter of time before a big performance was going to give him his first break into the Australian side. His match-winning 76 was a class performance that highlighted the form that he is in and the support that he was able to give the other batsmen throughout the blitz. 

I thought that Australia’s ODI side lacked a team performing together. It was too often seen that one player was taking the game on whilst the others were in a much lower league. But it has been a far opposite performance in the T20s. Finally, we are witnessing an Australian limited overs side after a long time having all the batsmen putting their hands up and working in partnerships and all scoring runs. All a T20 game requires is for just 2 players to make scores in excess of 40 and a good score is certainly on the horizon.

When I see this Australian T20 team, I see a batting side that is very solid and has the right balance of players that provide both patience and aggression. But I do see them being more of a chasing side due to their lack of experience in the bowling department. However, for Australia to be able to perform in all conditions at the same intensity, their bowling needs to improve to be able to defend totals which I don’t see Australia doing too often at this stage. 

It has just been going all bad for New Zealand in this series and the series before. It seems to me that they are suffering the same issues that Australia experienced in the ODI series. It appears that Martin Guptill is the only one who is able to take the game deep and he is honestly lacking support. There have been performances from the other players down the order but not on a consistent basis. It was seen throughout the T20 series against Pakistan where the tourists were able to take a 2-1 series victory against the Kiwis as Martin Guptill was really the only player to stand out with the bat in hand. 

With both New Zealand and Australia set to clash again in the Tri-Series final, Australia will be eyeing the number T20 ranking. However, with a suspected storm arriving, it could be the case that nature may not allow the Aussies to reach that feat so quickly.

Overall, I think that this series has certainly been a batting tournament, despite the thrilling spell by Billy Stanlake in the series opener, it has for sure been a batsmen’s tale. 

It is fairly clear that Australia will go on into the next game as favourites considering their form, but I think for New Zealand, they need to get their plans straight and target the Aussie bowling attack. I think that Australia’s weakness is their bowling and that the best way to expose that is to send them to bat first and let them defend whilst New Zealand can target specific players. 

However, I can strongly see Australia claiming the series and the number 1 ranking but much is the beauty of T20 cricket, it all depends on which team is able to best showcase their talent on the day.