What Australian ODI team fixed to become a World Cup force

The Australian cricket team has caught fire and announced itself as a major World Cup contender after vanquishing an horrific ODI record.

Australia had slumped to 21 losses in the space of 25 matches and had lost six-consecutive bilateral ODI series; its worst streak ever.

The miserable run had many doubting whether the five-time World Cup champions could defend the trophy they last won in 2015.

But many have changed their tune — and with good reason. Australia has suddenly found the winning formula with plenty of talent on the sidelines to spare.

The team has now won consecutive bilateral ODI series on the road for the first time since 2016. Australia is also on a winning streak of six games; its best since the World Cup in 2015.

Captain Aaron Finch has been a key player in the drastic turnaround, making scores of 90 or more four times in his past six innings.

After Australia sealed a straight-sets victory in the five-match series against Pakistan in the UAE, he said the change in his side’s fortunes had come down to two areas; partnership-building and playing spin better.

“We’ve had good partnerships ... In the first couple of games we had some really big, match-winning partnerships which has been nice,” Finch said. “It doesn’t allow the other team to get on top.

“It’s been really pleasing that that’s been an area of improvement.”

He added: “We’ve played some really consistent cricket which has been nice. We’ve been building up and building up — we’re doing the basics really well at the moment.

“Any time you can beat India and Sri Lanka in their home conditions, or close to their home conditions, is really good.”

On more than one occasion this month has Australia moved into a match-winning position off the back of a mighty partnership.

Openers Finch and Usman Khawaja have twice been responsible.

The pair put on 193 in the third ODI against India which was the line-in-the-sand moment, after which Australia is yet to lose.

Finch and Khawaja also piled on 209 runs together in the second match against Pakistan for Australia’s fifth-greatest ODI opening partnership.

Their success is indicative of a positive trend in Australia’s top-order, which has grown collapse-resistant in the subcontinent.

Since the end of the summer, Australia’s first five wickets have averaged 54.05 runs each.

Between February 2018-February 2019, that average was just 33.25.

In that same period, Australia’s ODI top-order made just three centuries and 14 fifties, while the top six averaged 38.99 each.

The top-order has made four tons and six fifties in this month alone, while the top six has averaged 51.28 each.

As a result, Australia has lost less wickets - just 5.88 a match this month, down from 7.79 between February 2018-February 2019.

Part of that improvement has come down to playing spin better.

Spin bowling accounted for 36 wickets at 31.02 against Australia in that dark, post Cape-Town period, whereas it has taken 20 at 54.50 — in spin-friendly conditions — since.

“I think we’re playing spin a lot better than we have in the past,” Finch said.

“We know in these conditions, when Asian teams get a hold of you through their middle overs, they can squeeze the life out of you.”

The introduction of Peter Handscomb and utilising Glenn Maxwell in a fluid role has had a big role to play. Both players are considered to be among the nation’s finest middle-overs batsmen and most capable players of spin.

They also add versatility to the Australian middle-order, given both players can score quickly or just find the gaps and rotate the strike.

“Anyone who can play right around the ground are so dangerous,” Finch said about Maxwell and Handscomb. “They’ve got power but they’ve also got the touch game as well at times.

“As a captain it’s incredibly hard to set fields to guys like that ... you can only have five back and there’s always one gap they’re going to exploit.”

Australia’s ODI team at the start of the summer featured a wealth of big hitters in the top five, including Chris Lynn and D’Arcy Short.

It’s now clear that set-up suffered by neglecting the more nuanced approaches of the current crop who have found ominous form at the right time.