The captain of the Australian cricket team, Pat Cummins, said on Wednesday that his team had something to prove following their elimination from the Twenty20 World Cup. They will begin a five-match one-day international series against the tournament winners, England, this week.
Despite entering the tournament as the defending champions, Australia was eliminated in the group round of the World Cup. In contrast, Jos Buttler’s team was able to cruise to victory and claim the championship with a nail-biting victory over Pakistan on Sunday.
“Yeah, I think you always have a point to prove, especially playing here in Australia,” said Test captain Pat Cummins, who will lead the one-day team for the first time on Thursday as a result of Aaron Finch’s retirement from the 50-over game. Finch made the announcement that he was retiring from the 50-over game earlier this year.
“We want to win every series that we play, and we probably anticipate that we will.
“The foundation of this group was a part of that Twenty20 side, so… it’s a different format, but we definitely didn’t play as well as we know we can, and this provides us an opportunity straight away to compete against the best.”
They will play England in three one-day matches, the first of which will take place in Adelaide, then on to Sydney on Saturday, and finally to Melbourne four days after that. Melbourne was the location where England defeated Pakistan by five wickets.
Following this victory, Buttler’s squad became the first to ever hold both the 50-over and 20-over white-ball titles simultaneously.
Pat Cummins, who has recovered from an episode of gastroenteritis and will be able to participate in the game, commented that the opposing team “may be a little bit short on sleep, but they’re a class side.”
They are at the top of their game. They undoubtedly had a successful Twenty20 campaign, and they will continue to be formidable.
With the exception of Glenn Maxwell, who suffered a horrific accident while attending a birthday party over the weekend and shattered his leg, Australia will go into the series with an almost full-strength lineup.
Since Finch is no longer a member of the club, David Warner and Travis Head will now open the batting order together.
As an opener in one-day international matches, Head has a solid track record. He has scored nearly 600 runs across 15 innings, including a century in Pakistan back in March. But so far this summer, he hasn’t managed to pull in anything really noteworthy.
“I honestly feel like I’ve trained really, very well in the last couple of months,” said Head. “I’m really excited about this upcoming competition.”
“I am aware that it has not yet trickled down into the games; yet, that is the beauty of it — I am aware that it is right around the corner.”
Buttler and Sam Curran, who was named player of the tournament in the Twenty20 World Cup, are among the eight members of England’s successful T20 World Cup squad that have remained in Australia for the one-day series. This is the first step in England’s year-long preparation for defending their 50-over title in India.
They also have Sam Billings, Jason Roy, and James Vince, all of whom participate frequently in the Big Bash League in Australia and are therefore familiar with the conditions there. However, Ben Stokes, who was England’s hero in the final of the T20 World Cup, will not be participating because he recently decided to end his ODI career.
“For me, and for the other guys who haven’t been around the squad in the last month or so, it’s a huge opportunity to stake a claim and get back into more prominent roles in that side,” said wicketkeeper-batter Billings. “For the other guys who haven’t been around the squad in the last month or so, it’s a huge opportunity to get back into more prominent roles in that side.”
“We have every reason to believe that Australia will field an outstanding team because they consistently perform at an extremely high level when playing on their home turf.”