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Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne have joined Glenn Maxwell in abandoning a traditional fixation with making centuries to score runs at the high tempo Australia need from them at this World Cup.
That’s the view of former captain Aaron Finch, who spoke of how the evolution of ODI cricket into a more supercharged format, akin to Twenty20, had compelled seasoned players to move out of their former mindsets.
Power and precision: Australian duo Marnus Labuschagne and Steve SmithCredit: AP
Pat Cummins’ side faces India in Chennai on Sunday in its tournament opener, with the hosts potentially losing their prolific opener Shubman Gill due to illness. Reports out of India suggested that the 24-year-old has been tested for dengue fever.
Back in 2018, when Justin Langer was installed as Australia’s coach, Maxwell was left out of the Test team and placed on the fringes of the white-ball XI on the basis that he did not make hundreds often enough.
Smith and Labuschagne, meanwhile, brought prolific scoring to the Test side, but often got in each other’s way in the middle overs of a one-day game because they were trying to set a platform for a big score rather than continuing momentum through an innings.
Finch, whose international career spanned the move from fast starts, consolidation and final acceleration to a more consistently high tempo across 50 overs, said that Smith and Labuschagne had shown welcome recent evidence that they were now working more seamlessly with the team’s plan to keep up the attack throughout.
Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith participate in a traditional Holi celebration in Ahmedabad this year.Credit: Getty Images
“Steve and Marnus are both ridiculously high-skilled,” Finch told this masthead. “All it is is changing that mindset slightly away from ‘Right, I’m top four, I’ve got to get a big hundred to have an impact on the game’.
“Sometimes it isn’t the big hundred, sometimes it’s the intent you show at the start of the innings that gets you to 25 off 20 balls, continues that momentum and makes it easier on the next guy coming in, makes it easier on your partner at the other end who might be going as well. So it’s just a mindset shift in that way.
“When you’ve got guys as skilled as them, they can do that easily. It’s important when you’ve got players like that who aren’t all-out brute force, they’re touch players, skilful at using their hands, that they don’t try to compete with guys who have a higher dot ball percentage but hit more fours and sixes to make up for it. It’s just about doing your job slightly differently to the way other guys do it and embracing that.”
Maxwell, meanwhile, is in a very different mental space to the cloudy days of four years ago when he struggled to produce his batting best at the 2019 World Cup, later revealing he was getting peppered with short balls at training in between games.
“I think for a while there he probably tried to change his game slightly, or a lot to be honest, because he wanted to be a top order player that got bulk runs and the big hundreds and stuff like that,” Finch said.
“As a young player you’re always drilled to get big hundreds and get runs and win games, whereas his role … he’s so damaging that he can win a game in 10 overs or five overs with bat and ball. So becoming comfortable with that role, knowing ‘I’m not going to get the chance to bat at four, but I’ll really embrace this role and be as destructive as I can’, that’s eased his mind a lot I think.”
Finch, who is commentating on all of Australia’s matches in India, believes that in addition to those two sides, Pakistan, England, South Africa and New Zealand are all legitimate chances to lift the trophy. All their captains, he believes, will be resting slightly easier in the knowledge that Travis Head will miss at least the first part of the tournament with a fractured hand.
“Travis Head’s such a huge loss for the start of the tournament because he’s somebody who opposition teams really fear because of how quick he can score,” he said.
“You can bowl as well as possible and he can still destroy you on his day.
“They’re the kind of players that keep you up at night as a captain and as a leadership when you’re planning for the opposition, because they’re the ones you know, no matter what planning goes into it, if it’s their day they can be brutal.
“I think of Quinton de Kock, Jonny Bairstow, Rohit Sharma or Jos Buttler. When they’re having a day out, they’re so hard to stop and at times they can take the game away from you. So I think Trav will be a big out in that regard, particularly in the power play.”
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