Australia coach Andrew McDonald has defended the decision to leave Mitchell Starc out of the side that lost to Afghanistan in their T20 World Cup Super 8s clash on Sunday.
The 21-run win over the Aussies was Afghanistan's biggest ever cricket scalp. They also beat New Zealand earlier in the tournament.
On a St Vincent pitch that was expected to take spin, the Aussies opted for the two-pronged pace attack of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, and elected to bring in Ashton Agar to bowl alongside fellow tweakers Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell.
READ MORE: Bunnies facing 'catastrophe' over brutal exit call
READ MORE: Star whacks Cricket Australia call after shock win
READ MORE: Euros star rushed to hospital after horror collision
While Agar was economical – he conceded only 17 runs from his four overs – he failed to take a wicket.
Starc is one of the best strike bowlers in world cricket, and has a habit of picking up early wickets.
In their first Super 8s match against Bangladesh, Starc bowled Tanzid Hasan with the third ball of the innings. He did the same in Australia's tournament opener against Oman.
McDonald said it was a "tough" decision to leave Starc out of the side, but had no regrets despite losing to Afghanistan.
"It's always a tough decision to leave Mitch Starc out of a team, but from the way that the game unfolded, Ashton was suited to these conditions and we needed to make room," he said.
"We knew we were going to need more than eight overs of spin on that surface and it's probably something we've been planning and preparing for once we knew we were at this venue."
Hazlewood was expensive – he bled 39 runs from his four overs and didn't take a wicket – while Cummins picked up his second hat-trick in as many games to claim figures of 3-28 from his four overs.
Zampa took 2-28, while Glenn Maxwell went wicketless from his two overs.
"You never know whether you're right or wrong, but I thought Ashton bowled incredibly well today, used his skill, some good arm-balls, found some purchase early and he made it tricky to navigate through those first few overs," McDonald said.
"We got two (overs) out (of him) in the powerplay, which then set up the bowling for that end with him and Zamps operating.
"Unfortunately, we weren't able to take those early wickets."
Australia won the toss and elected to bowl, but then watched as the Afghani openers put on 118.
To make matters worse, the Aussies put in one of their worst fielding performances. Five catches were dropped, at least two genuine run-out opportunities were missed, and several extra runs were conceded through misfields.
Skipper Mitchell Marsh said Starc was "unlucky" to be dropped.
"We've said right from the start of the tournament that we've got 15 guys here, and we'll pick a team that we think can win us the game in those certain conditions, and everything pointed towards Ash," he said.
"The reality is, when you've got this much talent, someone's always unlucky to miss out."
McDonald said the conditions in St Vincent were as the Aussies were expecting, and he was comfortable with the decision to leave Starc out of the side.
The Afghanistan spin-heavy bowling attack has been the most economical of the tournament. McDonald said he and his staff were aware heading into the match the Afghani attack could put the side in a spin.
He suggested there was little point lamenting the decision as the Aussie focus switches to India on Tuesday morning (AEST) in St Lucia.
"When you're hopping around the islands, the conditions change dramatically, and we got what we expected," he said.
"I was comfortable with that decision and now we've got to turn our focus to India: a totally different line-up on a totally different surface, and we've got to make good decisions at the selection table.
"That's part of the art of navigating through a World Cup, to get those decisions right – and you can't play the same game twice.
"You can't put Mitchell Starc in there, or Nathan Ellis, and work out what the game would have looked like.
"We went to Ash and backed him in, and we've got full trust in whoever we call on in that 15 to get a job done and we've got a task ahead."
Australia must beat India to give itself the best chance of progression through to the semi-finals.
If the Aussies lose, they could still sneak into the semis if Bangladesh beat Afghanistan later on Tuesday.
Even if they beat India, Afghanistan could still leapfrog the Aussies into second on net run-rate with a massive win over Bangladesh.
India's two wins and big net run-rate has all but assured them of topping Group 1.
The Australia-India clash will begin at 12.30am Tuesday (AEST).
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.