“We’ve found ourselves in this position before,” Head said at the post-match presentation. “We said that at the toss, a little bit about ’23 and having injuries and working through, navigating through tournament play, which is difficult. We’ve seen a lot of tight games. All the teams are very good. [But] we’ve found ourselves in this position before.”
“A few guys in that dressing room were here in India that navigated through [the ODI World Cup] and we ended up on the right side of it. So we’ll go back to the blueprint of that, try to keep as much confidence in the dressing room as possible and we’ve got two more games to win.”
In 2023, Australia had carried Head through the first stages of the tournament as he recovered from a broken hand. They lost their first two matches and were on the back foot in the third against Sri Lanka before turning their fortunes around and charging to the title with Head a leading star. In this tournament, however, there is even less wiggle room in a short group stage.
With David coming into the tournament having played no cricket since late December and the unfortunate absence of Marsh, it means the batting order that operated with such destructive force during 2025 has yet to take shape in Sri Lanka.
“I think our batting group is so fluid with different options,” Renshaw said. “Having Mitch out is a big loss and not sure when he’ll be back. He’s a big player to open the batting, and when he’s not there, someone else has to open. So we have those differences in where people are going to be. But in terms of fluidity, I think we’re all pretty able to manipulate and manoeuvre around different conditions.”
“I think the bowlers in the group that are here are good enough,” Renshaw said. “You’ve seen them perform so many times in world cricket. Sometimes they just don’t get the wickets, the ball lands in the gap. But I back our bowling group. We probably should have chased that down. I don’t think it’s the bowling group that should get the blame today.”
Since winning the title in 2021, Australia have stumbled at the T20 World Cup. A heavy defeat to New Zealand was costly in 2022 then they fell in the Super Eights two years later with losses against Afghanistan and India. As recently as four months ago they looked primed to be serious challengers this time; now they are fighting to just stay in the mix.
Worth a look