Australia have arrived at the World Cup, and it is not good news for the rest

October 12, 2023, Lucknow, Australia, having won the toss and bowled first, conceded 311 against South Africa. There are no real demons in the pitch, but chasing 312, against a strong Proteas pace attack is no gimme. There is hope, from those back home, those at the ground, and within the team, that they can finally kickstart their World Cup campaign in Lucknow, having crumbled to a defeat against India just a few days prior.

That promise, though, quickly turns into disappointment. Australia are shot out for under 200 for the second game running. There are questions about why Travis Head is in the team despite not being fit. There are rumblings about why there is no second specialist spinner in the squad, and how Adam Zampa has magically lost his rhythm.

Worse still, there are actually murmurs that David Warner and Steve Smith are past their prime. That Glenn Maxwell is not the force he once was, and that Mitchell Marsh is just too inconsistent to be an opening batter for Australia at a World Cup.

Their campaign, post a 134-run humbling, has hit rock bottom. And there is a sense that it has not even begun. The five-time world champions, despite seven games left, are seemingly on the brink and staring into the abyss.

All of this does feel a little…exaggerated, right? Well, that is because Australia have set such high standards in the past and because they have won this damn competition five times. No other team has won it more than twice.

Rival fans, thus, were reveling in Australia’s failure to get on the board. Memes were doing the rounds on social media apps. And as absurd as it might sound, they were actually being written off.

Until…now.

Australia have now won three matches on the trot

Three games, especially in a World Cup as dragged out as the current edition, is not supposed to be a lot. But when those three matches involve three Australian victories – each accomplished with relative ease, it becomes pertinent. Not just because the five-time champions now have six points on the board, but more because they have this habit of stringing wins together, and not looking back.

The batting, which was the source of frustration at the beginning, has hit its straps. Warner, playing his third ODI World Cup, has been at the forefront of that renaissance. He now has back-to-back hundreds and is batting as well as he has ever done in the format.

Marsh, who has still been a little more erratic than he would have liked, pummelled Pakistan into submission in Bengaluru, showing off the power game that would have sent shivers down numerous bowling attacks’ spines. Smith has runs under his belt too, with Josh Inglis, in whatever limited opportunities he has gotten, also portraying that he is capable of manning the middle order.

Oh, and if that was not enough, Maxwell just strode out and blasted the fastest-ever ODI World Cup hundred against the Netherlands, getting to that mark in just 40 balls. The strokes he played? Well, reverse scoops, reverse swats, reverse hooks, the good-old slog over deep mid-wicket, pristine straight drives, and majestic cover drives. The usual.

The bowling department has also rediscovered its mojo. Its resolve was tested by Pakistan, especially when they threatened to hunt down 368 but they have largely gotten back the incision that made them the envy of many other sides. Zampa, who looked so hopelessly out of sync, is now the leading wicket-taker in the tournament and has picked up three four-wicket hauls in succession.

The ball is swinging rather nicely for Mitchell Starc, and as Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins showed in Delhi, they have the skill and the accuracy to extract life out of seemingly docile surfaces.

This might be stating the obvious but Australia, after two initial hiccups, now seem to have most bases covered. Of course, they will face tougher tests than those they have done in the past week or so, but the way in which they have fashioned these victories points to a side that is hurting and wants to prove people wrong.

When Australia are in that zone, oh, they are almost incomparable.

Sometimes, you do not necessarily take the shortest distance to where you want to get to, and Australia did take a detour to accommodate for a couple of early roadblocks. They had to recalibrate their GPS and find their way around, all while there was this constant noise that they had gotten their team combination wrong and that they had banked on individuals who had run their race.

But now, they are here. Arriving as we know them to be at these events. They have won three on the bounce and are in the top four at the time of writing. Head, who has been one of their best ODI players in recent times, has not even hit a ball in anger yet. And Starc, their most impactful World Cup bowler since 2015, has a further gear or two to click into.

That alone is indicative of why Australia could be a problem going forward. Them being at their best is perhaps what the neutral and their fans want because a fit and firing Australia enormously magnifies the spectacle. For rival teams and their fans, well, not quite.

That early October evening in Lucknow seems a far distance away now. Another World Cup conquest, perfectly within grasp.