Internet Desk: The Australian cricket fans are not happy with Steve Smith & co. as they lost the five-match ODI series by 4-1 against India. It will be tough for the Aussies to make a comeback in the T-20 series which will start in a few days time. According to their stand-in head coach David Saker his team have been a bit scared while facing Virat Kohli and his men at their own backyard and that is the main reason that they had a poor show during the ODI series.
“It’s not mainly personnel, I think it’s mainly just their mindset and where they are in their games. A lot of them are playing a little bit scared, which we try not to do. We try and make sure they play with a lot of freedom and express themselves as much as they can. But when you’re losing, you play scared, you go insular and you start looking after number one. I think there’s little bits of that. It’s not dramatic and we know we can fix that. I think the talent is there,” Saker told cricket.com.au.
Steve Smith & Co. have not played to their potential away from home and as the 2019 World Cup is just a couple of years back all the teams are looking to build a core squad for the grand event, As per Saker the Australian team need to start their preparation too and must look at the areas of concern.
“Obviously, our away form has been quite dreadful so we have to have a look at that. The next World Cup is away (from home). I don’t think it’s all doom and gloom, I think there’s some talent in that team. But there’s no doubt we have to probably re-jig a few things and see where we’re at,” he said.
Saker feels that a change in the squad could well help bring in fresh confidence and change the body language of the squad.
“Bringing almost half the squad in who haven’t been here for the four weeks so far is going to be exciting, and exciting for them. In Twenty20 cricket we’re definitely going to go out there (to) express ourselves and have some fun.
“After a long tour, India can sometimes get you down and wear you down but getting five or six new guys into the squad after what’s happened in the one-day series, we’ll be really determined to bounce back,” he said.
Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, AJ Tye, Adam Zampa.