Townsville (Queensland) September 4, : Australia men’s cricket team coach Andrew McDonald has indicated the three-match One-day International series against New Zealand at Cairns, starting on September 6th, will mark the beginning of the process of smoothing the side to prepare for the 50-over World Cup in India next year.Australia recently took the ODI series with Zimbabwe at Townsville 1-1 However, the hosts were able to take some major points and managed to upset the hosts with the spinner who is part-time Ryan Burl taking five wickets in the final ODI.
The three-wicket defeat to Australia was a wake-up call, and McDonald insists that the ODI series with No.1 in the rankings New Zealand will kick-start a series of minor adjustments in the team in the lead-up to the main event in the world next year.
Australia made only one change in its series win over Zimbabwe with Mitchell Marsh returning to Perth to treat an ankle injury of a minor nature.Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar replaced him after captain Aaron Finch indicated he wanted the batting line-up of the team to run in depth with all-rounders Marcus Stoinis, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green and Marsh all a part of the winning team.
“You’ll observe that the composition of our team began shifting from game to match at times, making sure we’re covering all areas,” McDonald was quoted by thewest.com.au in advance of the game against New Zealand.
He said, with the limited number of matches left prior to 2023’s World Cup, there aren’t many chances left and only slight changes are feasible.
“We don’t have a heck of many of cricket before the 2023 World Cup.We’ve played around 20 games and that’s reduced to the teens.We’ve not had many chances to ensure that we’re prepared and ready for this.
“We think that the group in the country (vs New Zealand) is going to support that with some of those obvious individuals who aren’t present.”
akm/
