The Aussie player who will be remembered more for hitting five sixes in an over from Shakib than playing cricket was being honest and yet just a little bit opportunistic. As a veteran player he was expected to do much but he ended up playing a cameo in the last two. In the first it was a match winning one and in the second he lasted less than an over. But he was in the team largely as a spinner and in that he didn’t do well. But was the pitch all that made a difference? It’s practically one of the worst ever performances by Australia ever and that is blamed solely on pitches.
Matthew Wade the Aussie captain had a slightly different take on the series and the final match:
“There’s not a lot of positives to take out of it, to get beaten in the fashion we did, especially tonight, was not good enough from an Australian cricket team regardless of the personnel we’ve got here. The reality is we need to get better at spin, myself included. There are a lot of players in this team who need to find a way to score runs in these conditions.
“[Bangladesh] are a terrific team in their own conditions, their spinners bowled really well, and they still found a way to find the extra runs and that’s something we can definitely get better at doing.” Wade laid the blame for the run-scoring woes to the more senior figures.
“I do not blame the young players one bit,” he said. “Myself, Moises [Henriques], Dan Christian, we are all experienced players and we needed to do better.
On the pitch Wade was candid. “I’ve played a lot of cricket and they are certainly the most challenging T20 international pitches I’ve ever played on. What they’ve seen out here will be very valuable going forward but it’s on the senior batting group, we needed to get more runs. If the batters can go back and find a way to get those extra runs in challenging conditions, that will hold us in good stead.”
The pitch applied to both teams but it’s Bangladesh’s home pitch so they have better conditioning to it naturally. Bangladeshis have much less opportunity to play outside so they do play more at home so it’s inevitable. Teams too were different as the Australians had top 5 players missing. But then Bangladesh too had their top 3 batsmen missing which is more crucial given the lack of accomplished batters in the home side as the series showed. But the Aus team was below par one. And at that level, Bangladesh was a better team taking all factors into consideration.
“Elitist and racist” forced to tour?
Australia was forced to travel before the T 20 WC as are other teams so Australia came and not by choice. Australian media kept on saying, this Dhaka pitch is so unlike Aussie pitches but the commentators also said that they need to get used to pitches outside. That Australia needs to come to terms with a larger world of cricket outside and beyond the White people’s world. Australia didn’t do well in the West Indies either, losing 4-1.
The other problem which Australia has is its reputation as an “elitist and racist” cricket playing country as one Aus media said. Australia is the most disliked team in the cricket playing world and with their sledging, standoffish attitude and refusal to tour what they call the lesser cricket playing nations. ICC is largely controlled by the big few and that is determining who tours whom. Australia’s tour was almost forced upon them so it’s no surprise that their lesser players are touring and better ones are resting.
Bangladeshi players were of course better prepared but as results show this doesn’t help much its losing record at home are a testimony to its poor performance. It’s better than its tours but not much. It’s also true no one expects Bangladesh to win and when they do everyone is shocked. Bangladeshis should also face this fact.
In the end many factors combined to create the result which has made so many Bangladeshis happy. But the lessons must be learnt. Bangladesh is improving but the pitches have to be less sticky. Not that it will make any difference as it has no commercial interest and that determines cricket decisions.
Meanwhile, New Zealand is coming with a very B-string side. No need to tamper with the pitches till then. Let’s enjoy this year and dispel some of the gloom that Corona has set in.
