Australia went with Glenn Maxwell as the fifth bowling option in their opening World Cup game against South Africa. It came as a surprise for the viewing world, as Maxwell has not been used as a primary bowling option in recent months.
Head coach Justin Langer suggested that they will experiment with different combinations as per the conditions and teams they’re up against. He mentioned that Maxwell’s ability to bowl with the new ball will come in handy at some point. He bowled at regular intervals with the new ball in UAE during the IPL while playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore.
“It was a very, very difficult selection. But because we went for the 7-4 set-up rather than the 6-5, and we felt that we were very well planned against South Africa, we knew that we wanted to try and make an impact in the powerplay overs, in the first six overs, we’ve seen that through the IPL.
And we also knew the strength of South Africa upfront so, and thankfully it worked yesterday,”
said Langer.
Australia defeated South Africa in the final over of the contest, despite having to chase just 119 runs. They had a pretty convincing outing with the ball, but their top order failure added a lot of pressure on the batters.
Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade completed the game for the men in yellow, who, at one position, were struggle to chase the meagre total.
Ashton Agar, who has been decent in the limited overs format over the last few years, found himself dropped, and Langer acknowledged that it was a tough decision to take.
He also mentioned Kane Richardson, who was with the Royal Challengers Bangalore earlier in the first half of the Indian Premier League but failed to get a game in the opening game of the T20 World Cup.
He spoke about the current form of David Warner and skipper Aaron Finch as well. Warner has had a torrid outing at the domestic and international level, having failed to score runs for both Australia and his club team in IPL, the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
However, Langer noted that there were some positive moments in the game for the opening batter, and they aren’t much worried about it.
