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T20 World Cup, AUS vs OMA: Speaking to the reporters before the match against Oman, head coach Andrew McDonald said that Australia underperformed in all three departments of the game and it would be unfair to only blame the bowlers.
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00:00Andrew, how hard has it been to keep motivation in the group after what's transpired over the past few days?
00:06Yeah, we've got a pretty sort of devastated group, it's fair to say.
00:09I mean, the motivation is you're still playing a World Cup game for your country.
00:13So we've got to plan and prepare accordingly.
00:16It's a little bit of a rare situation we're in.
00:19We're usually alive coming to these points in time, but not to be.
00:23And yeah, we've put ourselves in this position.
00:25So hopefully, Oman, we can prepare and go and do the job there.
00:31Only able to take two wickets in each of the past two games, one of those in power play.
00:35Has that sort of been your biggest issue and how do you sort of rectify that?
00:41I think across all three phases of the game, we've had some areas for improvement.
00:47To single out the bowling, I think it's easy to do that when you don't add the impact that we
00:52have had.
00:53But if we had to put some more runs on the board against Zimbabwe, 4-29 in the power play.
00:59So there's some sort of mitigating circumstances there to the reason why we're not where we should be in the
01:04tournament.
01:05But yeah, I think it would be unfair to lump that onto the bowling group and those players there.
01:11I guess on the batting, there's been a shift towards power hitting and that aggressive batting since the last World
01:18Cup.
01:18I've watched a lot of it and it's been incredibly good to watch at times.
01:22Do you think it's sort of been a little bit exposed here in these conditions and do you look to
01:28sort of tweak that approach going forward?
01:31I mean, the easier answer to say is it has been exposed because of the performances that we've put out.
01:36If you look at the last 12 months and the way that we've played and the way that batting group's
01:39gone about it,
01:41it has nuance to it as well.
01:43So I think it's unfair to say that we've put all our eggs in the basket of power when you
01:47talk about some of the quality players we've got in there
01:49and Cameron Green and Travis Head and Josh Inglis and Mitch Marsh.
01:54And I name those players because they've played test cricket.
01:57So I think if you're playing test cricket, you do have the skills to combat most conditions.
02:02So I think people will easily say that we invested in the power,
02:06but we felt like we had the balance across that batting unit to get the job done in these conditions.
02:11And probably the only significant shift that we've made in terms of promoting power,
02:16if you want to call it that, was Tim David at number four.
02:19And he had his challenges coming into this tournament on the back of injury
02:22and unfortunately couldn't get going those two opportunities.
02:25And I think that's really the tail of the tape is that we've had a lot of players not performing
02:29at once,
02:30which for this group's been rare.
02:32And as I said, you think back across the journey,
02:35we've always had two key contributors with the bat that's able to give us the totals.
02:41And on the bowling front, it's easy to look at what you haven't got here.
02:45And people have done that.
02:46I sort of read a little bit in the last couple of days
02:49and people have looked at what we haven't got here.
02:51And yeah, that does destabilise you to some degree,
02:54but the guys that have had the opportunity here are good enough.
02:56And that's probably where we leave this tournament is
03:00with the knowledge that we were good enough
03:01and we're incredibly disappointed that we weren't able to take those opportunities
03:05and get ourselves to the next phase of the tournament.
03:08It's probably been unfortunate that the BBL kind of worked against you in some respects.
03:13You had the David injury and then Alice got injured towards the end of it.
03:15It's a few players, you know, lost form through that tournament.
03:18Do you sort of, you know, I guess you want them playing this format leading in,
03:22but it kind of, you know, disrupted the lead in a little bit.
03:25Yeah, I suppose for every instance where you've got a player that may have a setback in that,
03:30you've got a tournament where the competition's strong with those players playing in it.
03:34So, and there's people that were performing well in that tournament as such as well.
03:39So I think you can look at it when it doesn't go your way.
03:43It's a little bit like into the test summer.
03:44We, you know, we played a couple of guys in Shield cricket leading into that
03:46and we lost them due to injury.
03:49Yeah, we like our players playing in our domestic competition
03:51and I think T20 running into a T20 World Cup is advantageous as a whole.
04:01Hello, coach.
04:03You just mentioned it's kind of a rare situation to be in, you know, not really used to it.
04:08What would you put this situation down to?
04:11There were injuries at a very crucial moment.
04:14Marsh has lost a few games.
04:16Some combinations not working out.
04:18What would you attribute this current situation to, coach?
04:23Yeah, I wouldn't want to put it in the basket of excuses
04:27and, you know, putting it definitely on injuries.
04:30As I said, I think we had the personnel to be able to navigate through this part of the tournament.
04:34There are unfortunate setbacks that do great conversations
04:37and we obviously brought Steve Smith in to cover the top order there.
04:40So we had to make some changes to our squads based upon that.
04:43Yeah, but to sit here and put your finger right on exactly at this point in time,
04:48I think that will take some time to sort of process as we exit out of the tournament
04:53and go home and give ourselves some time to review how we come into the tournament,
04:56review how it went within the tournament.
04:58So all those things will take a little bit of time,
05:00but, yeah, I'm not here sitting using injuries and moving parts as an excuse.
05:04We've had those challenges before in many formats and been able to combat them.
05:08So, yeah, I think it's a little bit deeper than that.
05:11Great.
05:13Coach, after you finish the game against Oman,
05:17the next chapter that you look forward to in the T20 format
05:19becomes the 2028 T20 World Cup, which you host.
05:23Do you think Cricket Australia recharts its strategy
05:27with the current set of players
05:28and also picking players from the talent pool down under?
05:32Do you think that process will begin?
05:35I think any time you're picking a squad,
05:36you're picking the best players that you think can do the job at that point in time.
05:39And, as was mentioned earlier, the build-in to this tournament
05:43in which we had and the style of cricket
05:45and the balance of our batting unit, the balance of our bowling attack,
05:49we felt really confident coming into this tournament.
05:52So I think the same process you go through
05:54and we've got a strong domestic BBL competition there.
05:58We've got guys that play in the PSL.
06:00We've got guys that play in the BBL.
06:01So the only thing in the next 12 months is we'll have a lack of T20 cricket,
06:05as is the way of the schedule.
06:06So they won't really ramp up until pretty much that World Cup year,
06:10which is similar to what happened in this cycle.
06:12So we limited T20 international opportunities.
06:14I think we go to Bangladesh and we've got a series against England.
06:16So we've got six in the sort of next period of time.
06:19So that's probably not enough to start to sort of build out
06:23what your direction is.
06:26I think that'll come a little bit closer.
06:27But, yeah, as I said, I think the decisions that we made,
06:31the squad that we picked,
06:33we've got a room full of players that are incredibly disappointed,
06:35knowing that they were good enough to progress.
06:38And we've just got to own the fact that we haven't.
06:40And, yeah, there's in all three facets of the game.
06:43If you look at it, you can find margins and small margins
06:45that would have got us over the line.
06:47And even the other night, you know,
06:48eight overs in, 100-plus runs on the board, none down.
06:51And then to lose eight for 80 in those 12 overs
06:54meant that we couldn't put the pressure on Sri Lanka.
06:56So you can look at each game in isolation.
06:59But as a collective, we haven't been good enough.
07:02Yeah, Coach.
07:03Obviously, it's going to be a disappointed trip over here.
07:08And you play an associate nation like Oman.
07:10So obviously there would be any lack of motivation
07:13going against a team like Oman tomorrow.
07:17And there have been obviously some experts
07:21and former captains talking about the selection.
07:23So would you like to comment on the team selection
07:25after the obviously exist?
07:27Had you qualified to the next round,
07:30they wouldn't have been saying the same thing.
07:32But now that you have not been able to go to the second stage
07:35in Super 8,
07:36there have been obviously talks about the selection issues,
07:39those two things.
07:40Yeah, so I'll start with the Oman game.
07:42There won't be any lack of motivation within that.
07:46Last couple of days has obviously been a lot of emotions flying around.
07:49And our job as a coaching staff and as a playing contingent
07:54is to be able to zero in on the game.
07:56And it's an opportunity to play for Australia.
07:58It's also an opportunity.
08:00No World Cup groups are ever the same.
08:02There's always a change here or there.
08:04So this group's got an opportunity together
08:05to finish off the journey that they started a long time ago.
08:09And we had nine and games running in
08:11and there was some incredible performances within that.
08:14So there'll be motivation to finish the job,
08:17albeit shorter where we want it to be.
08:18So we've got one more World Cup game
08:20and we'll be zeroed in on that.
08:22In terms of selection,
08:24I think debate around selection is always great.
08:27There's always differing opinions from the outside.
08:31And sometimes the people on the outside don't understand
08:34what the moving parts are
08:35and the conversations are on the inside.
08:37And it's fair for them to critique us at this point in time.
08:41I have no objections to that.
08:43They're entitled to their opinions.
08:45And what I will say is that, you know,
08:48this group, and I'm not defending select this year,
08:51but the group as a whole has made some really good decisions
08:54across a period of time.
08:55And we feel like that we were making the right decisions,
08:57asking ourselves the right questions.
08:59Unfortunately, we won't be able to get the performances that we wanted.
09:02So those people are entitled to critique that
09:04and we're incredibly disappointed with where we're at.
09:06And I think probably the critiquing from people back home
09:09and people weighing into selection
09:11is around disappointment as well,
09:13that they thought this group could have gone further in the tournament.
09:16We truly believe that as well.
09:17So everyone's entitled to their opinion.
09:22Andrew, you mentioned there were some emotions flying around.
09:25What have those conversations been like
09:26and have they in any way kind of helped you unpick
09:29what happened in the Zimbabwean and Sri Lanka matches?
09:32I think any time you're in that emotive state,
09:36it's not looking backwards, it's looking forwards.
09:38And the next game is Oman.
09:40So we're going to get our heads right around that.
09:42We're going to plan and prepare against the opponent that presents.
09:45And I think the time to start to look back over
09:48at what happened will be when we exit the shores here.
09:50And that's when you can really probably get a little bit more clarity.
09:53I think emotion sometimes gets in the way of it.
09:55So we can remove the emotion, get to playing,
09:57and then we can start to really unpick what that looks like
10:00and what the future looks like.
10:01And I think it's unfair to say that a lot of these players
10:04wouldn't be in that next phase.
10:06I think the easy option is to say, well, that didn't work there.
10:09These players are incredibly talented.
10:12They're very good T20 players
10:13and some of them are some of the best we've seen.
10:15And unfortunately, we all had foul moments all too often together.
10:21And as I said, that's rare for this group.
10:24It's not an excuse, but we have to own that.
10:27As you mentioned earlier on,
10:29it's extremely rare for an Australian team to lose,
10:31to leave a tournament at this stage.
10:34But, you know, maybe if you look back a little bit,
10:36that Pakistan series, there were a little bit of, you know,
10:39there were obviously concerns there.
10:40What did you do at that stage to try and course correct for the World Cup?
10:45And how did those efforts go?
10:47Yeah, we had a very condensed period to prepare for that tour.
10:51And I think if you looked at going in the day before for a Pakistan series,
10:54and this is not excuses, we had the BBL finals,
10:58we had some injured players,
11:00so it was very difficult to get the World Cup group together there
11:03to start to plan and prepare.
11:04And we were underprepared for that series.
11:07We didn't improve across those three games,
11:10but there was different personnel, different challenges.
11:12And the services in Pakistan, people say they're similar to here.
11:16I think they're slightly different.
11:18So, yeah, that's where I see that take of it.
11:23Andrew, I know there's only a small crossover
11:26between the Test squad and this squad,
11:28but did you, in hindsight, I guess it's a wonderful thing,
11:30but did you, we all underestimate the focus and the attention
11:33on the Ashes over the T20 World Cup,
11:36which these other teams have been fully locked into for some time?
11:40We've been fully locked into this for a period of time.
11:42This is one of our priorities.
11:43And I have heard that sort of narrative
11:44that T20 World Cups don't matter to us.
11:47I think all that is is a response to the performances
11:50of Australian cricket teams in these competitions.
11:52I think we won the one in 2021
11:55and we haven't been as successful since that point in time.
11:58And the expectations on the Australian cricket team are high
12:00and rightfully so.
12:02But to sit back and say that we're prioritising other formats
12:06or other versions of the game
12:08and not the T20 World Cup is entirely false.
12:12Have we had some challenges on the back of injuries
12:16from players on the back of Test series?
12:18That's always something we deal with
12:19and every nation has to deal with it.
12:21And it's very difficult to be high performing
12:23across three formats.
12:24And I think that's been one of the strengths of this group.
12:26We have done that for a long period of time
12:28and we focus on every format.
12:30We prioritise every format.
12:32And at times things cross over
12:35and definitely get in the way in terms of injuries
12:38and workload and those types of things.
12:39But we're gearing up to have those players
12:42that have been mentioned that aren't here to be here.
12:45Unfortunately, they weren't able to make this tournament.
12:48Does that make a difference to your performance?
12:50In some ways, yes.
12:51But as I said, I truly believe that the players
12:53that we hear were good enough
12:54and it shouldn't be about the players that we're missing.
12:57It should be looking at the performances
12:58of what we've been able to put out here
13:00and we're disappointed in those
13:02and we need to own those
13:03and the critique is fair and reasonable.
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