Controversy had engulfed Australia much before the World T20 2016 actually commenced. Six weeks ago the main tournament took off, the Australians had been whitewashed at home 3-0 by India and that led to the ouster of Aaron Finch as Australia’s captain. He was replaced by Steve Smith, who had the responsibility of handling a confused unit.
Things didn’t end there, as David Warner was asked to bat in the middle order just to accommodate Usman Khawaja at the top. The tournament took off on a dubious note for the Kangaroos as they failed to chase down a moderate total against New Zealand at Dharamsala. That was followed by wins over Bangladesh and Pakistan, but a loss to India ended their run.
On the sidelines of the IPL, Australian skipper Steve Smith opened up on the campaign and discussed his side’s poor run. “I thought the top of our order played pretty well,” Smith told cricket.com.au in Hyderabad. “Usman Khawaja got us off to a good start every game. He was in very good form, probably the most in-form batter in the Australian team in the past year or thereabouts,” said Smith, about the top order.
Smith blamed Australia’s middle order for the failures endured in India. “You could have gone all different ways. “But I thought Warner is a good player. He was able to adjust and play well at No.3 in South Africa – he plays spin well. “Our middle order let us down. “We got off to good starts in most of our games and the middle order, myself included, weren’t up to the task in this particular World Cup.”
Acknowledging the brilliance of Virat Kohli in their game against India, Smith said, “I was happy with the squad that we had over there,” Smith said. “I thought we had a good squad to win that tournament. “That game against New Zealand we let ourselves down. We should have chased down 140 really. We weren’t too far off I don’t think. “That game against India I thought 160 was a pretty good score and it took a pretty special innings from Virat Kohli to get them over the line,” said Smith.