Report Card: Australia

Results summary

No Result v New Zealand
No Result v Bangladesh
Lost to England by 40 runs

What went wrong?

Perhaps the better question would be what didn’t go wrong? Initially, team leadership freely admitted that they “got away with one” after an underwhelming opener against New Zealand, struggling to 53-3 when the rain tumbled. That theme continued in Australia’s second encounter, against Bangladesh, but this time it was robbed of the points, falling four overs short of the 20 required to constitute a game. At that stage, Australia were 83-1 and mowing down the Tigers’ 182 with ease. To finish it off, the men in gold were completely outplayed by England in all three facets of the game. “Not good enough,” was the assessment of coach Darren Lehmann as the team packed their bags. “England were a lot better than us. Simple as that.”

Positives to take home?

The Champions Trophy hasn’t been the happiest hunting ground for Australia of late, and this disappointing campaign underscores the fact that Steve Smith’s side has plenty of work to do before its World Cup defence in two years’ time on these shores. With the ball, Australia’s much-vaunted seam attack didn’t live up to expectations but Josh Hazlewood claimed a career-best 6-52 to ravage the Black Caps’ lower order and he maintained that consistency against Bangladesh and England. New-ball partner Mitchell Starc also experienced a purple patch, racing through the Bangladesh tail with a fearsome spell of 4-1 at The Oval to reinforce why he is the most dynamic white-ball operator on the planet.

With bat in hand, opportunities were limited after two innings were halted after 25 overs collectively. Against England, Australia batted out the overs only on account of Travis Head’s excellent unbeaten 71. The mature hand highlighted that he's a young man in a hurry. Both Smith and Aaron Finch tallied fine half-centuries earlier, but both gave it away, much to the coach’s frustration. “We needed some of those guys to go on and get hundreds,” said Lehmann. “Finch and Smith played really well but you need one of your top four to get a hundred. And then we bowled pretty poorly after the rain break.”

Areas for improvement?

David Warner will leave disappointed, still yet to clock an international century in the UK despite coming into the tournament in the ODI form of his life with eight centuries in the previous 12 months. Matthew Wade had limited opportunities to influence the trajectory of the campaign but fell to a soft dismissal against England before – crucially – putting down Eoin Morgan on 12 when Australia was on top. He should have grabbed that,” Lehmann said, matter-of-factly.

Further scrutiny is levelled at the selection table. Moises Henriques was trusted at number four, but leaves the competition with two poor dismissals, still yet to reach 20 in ODIs. Lehmann admitted that experiment didn’t work. Especially so, given it kept Marcus Stoinis, who made a magnificent 146 not out in his previous ODI series, from the XI. “That’s always a tough selection call,” he said. “At the end of the day you take advice from everyone and you take a call and the skipper was quite keen for him to bat four.”

As for why Chris Lynn wasn’t given the chance to display his destructive skills, the coach said he was under consideration for the quasi-quarter final against the old enemy, but the decision was made to stick with an unchanged line-up.

“It hasn’t been great,” Lehmann concluded of the limp batting. “We certainly want to get back to playing brave cricket. I don’t think we were brave enough or smart enough in this tournament. So, I would like us to play with a lot more freedom and bravery.”

What next?

In theory, to Bangladesh for a two-Test tour in late August. But with an ongoing contractual dispute playing out between the board and players’ association, there remains a chance Australia’s top-flight players will not be contracted at the time. With the white ball, Australia is off to India for an ODI tour in October before returning home for the blockbuster Ashes series against England beginning mid-November. Provided, of course, those contracts get signed.

Overall grade

D-