Andrew McDonald reflects on Australia's 'failed' Cup campaign

Warner and Cummins in T20 World Cup (Source: AP)

Despite being called the favourites before the start of the T20 World Cup 2022, Australia had their flaws. Game time to the core members and the lack of form of their skipper Aaron Finch were one of the major worrisome factors that the defending champions had, but still, they were touted to be the first nation to win a T20 World Cup at home. 

That didn't happen, and now the Australian head coach Andrew McDonald has labelled his team's defence a "failed campaign" and they have been left "feeling a little numb" after failing to qualify for the playoffs.

In a press release drawn by Cricket Australia, the head coach has pinpointed on some key pointers which, according to him, were the reasons for Australia's early exit. 

The head coach said that batters not being consistent as the key reasons. For the sake of stats, after the Super 12 stage, no Australia batter could be in top-20 run-getters in the tournament - Marcus Stoinis being on the 21st spot with 126 runs from five games. 

"We saw Tim David come in for Mitch Swepson – we felt that was the right play coming into the tournament and as I sit here right now, I still think it was the right play." 

Australia's head man further cited that the selection of Test bowlers played a huge part in their campaign. 

"For this World Cup, we felt those three bowlers – Mitch Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood – were the best suited to be part of the squad to navigate through the World Cup." 

Meanwhile, the 41-year-old also complimented the likes of Kane Richardson, Riley Meredith and Nathan Ellis to build in some depth. 

The reigning T20 champions were knocked out of the competition on the basis of Net Run Rate (-0.173), not only because they were heavily beaten by New Zealand in the first game but when they won they never won by a huge margin.

Also Read: Shane Watson raises questions over Australia's poor showing