How Australia sleepwalked out of the World Cup

When Glenn Maxwell picked up a ball that was hit straight back at him by Wasim Ali and flung it towards the wicketkeeper. The throw was off-target and ricocheted harmlessly towards Adam Zampa at short fine-leg. Only for the Australian leg-spinner to let the ball slip through his legs, conceding a rather undeserved single to Wasim.

Zampa looked away. Maxwell looked away. So did every other Australian on the field. It did have little bearing on the contest. It had literally no bearing on Australia's hopes in the World Cup. Those had been extinguished a couple of days before Mitch Marsh's team had the unenviable task of taking the field in Pallekele for the final league encounter of Round 1. And the deadest of rubbers ever in a World Cup.

As it turned out, Maxwell cleaned up Wasim's stumps a couple of deliveries post the collective indiscretion on the field. But there was no celebration. Just like there wasn't for any wicket that fell during the Oman innings. There was also the moment where Cameron Green seemed keener to get back to the top of his mark rather than hang around and find out if his incredibly athletic effort at taking a caught and bowled low to the ground had resulted in a legal catch. It went with the mood of the evening.

Their 2026 T20 World Cup story had come to an end 15 days earlier than they'd expected it to. They'd been among three Test nations to bow out at the preliminary stage. The other two being Afghanistan, who at least had their moments in the tournament, and Ireland.

There's merit in calling it this an Australian team's worst ever World Cup performance. Especially when you look at the first round group they found themselves in. To not qualify when you're up against Zimbabwe, who didn't even qualify for the last edition, and Sri Lanka, who despite being co-hosts have had one of the more ordinary overall records in the format in recent times. This is nothing to take away from the comprehensive nature in which both of them managed to thrash Australia. But it explains the scale of Australia's debacle.

While most of Australia slept, the former champions' hopes in the tournament went to bed prematurely. And the criticism back home has been fierce ever since. But it's not always been constructive. It's felt less like nuanced post-mortems, and more like people on the side of the road gathering around a car wreck with each piping in with their opinion about whose fault it was.

In a way, it's been a reflection of the largely passing interest that the critical mass of Australian cricket fans have expressed in the T20I team's fortunes over the years. Mostly because it's been played behind a paywall and not on free-to-air television since 2018-19. But also because of how most of Australia's bilaterals away from home have been played at odd hours for their home audiences.

Maybe the rapid frequency of these T20 World Cups might have something to do with it, but it's probably more to do with Australia's overall failure to dominate this particular format in a fashion in which they have the other two. When you consider that since 2012, Australia have only made the semifinal stage of the T20 World Cup once, in 2021 when they went on to win the trophy.

It's highly likely that not many would have been stirred this time around either if Australia were knocked out in the Super 8s stage of the tournament. Just like it was the case back in 2024, a largely forgettable campaign that never quite got going. But one when it ended barely got a mention in the papers here. So it was either going to take Australia winning the title against the odds or an embarrassing exit like the one that's transpired for the tournament to really get some mainstream attention.

So where did it all go wrong for the Australians? To completely undermine their lead up to the World Cup would be unfair. They won 16 out of the 20 games they played before the start of the current summer. They then went down 2-1 to India in a rain-affected series, lost 3-0 in Pakistan with a team missing a big chunk of their core players.

It's fair to say that they were the third best team behind India and South Africa in the 18-month period between T20 World Cups. And most of their run was built on their array of power-hitters, a top 7 which on paper would be the envy of many of their opponents. With Travis Head accompanying captain Marsh at the top, they had Cameron Green in the form of his white ball life at No 3 with the likes of Maxwell, Josh Inglis, Tim David and Marcus Stoinis to follow. David's emergence as a killer at the top at No 4, where he averaged 49 and at a strike rate of 197 in 2025, seemed to have given them the edge that previous Australian T20I teams had lacked.

Add to that the injuries to Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood on the back of Mitchell Starc having retired from the format. For a decade, the Australian selectors had dialled for those three for every ICC white-ball tournament, and built their title hopes around them. With Cummins and Hazlewood both missing the entire World Cup, Australia had to rely on their second rung of fast bowlers led by Nathan Ellis. Adam Zampa carried an injury into the tournament and before his 4/21 against Oman looked a shell of himself with the ball. You wonder how much of that had to do with the lack of Hazlewood in particular and the pressure he's managed to build at the other end over the years. While Zimbabwe's batters sat on Zampa's spell, the Sri Lankans led by Pathum Nissanka were prepared to take him on.

While Ellis has proved his worth around the world now, and is a genuinely elite performer at this level, the likes of Xavier Bartlett and Ben Dwarshius were found wanting. BBL performances are definitely viewed through different lens when it comes to IPL auctions in recent years. Gone are the days where a Ben Dunk or a D'Arcy Short would get fast-tracked into the IPL purely on a handful of BBL knocks. It's the same with the bowlers. Unless you have a proven record in at least two of the other T20 franchise leagues in the world or at international level, expensive pick-ups from the BBL have stopped. More so since 2021 when Jhye Richardson, who was the leading wicket-taker in the BBL that season, and Riley Meredith were bought for significant money, but barely made an impact. Being let go by their respective teams before the start of the following season.

It also didn't help that the team never looked settled due to injuries and more attention being paid externally over a non-selection rather than those who did make it to the squad. It felt like Steve Smith's shadow, not by his choice, hung over their World Cup campaign from even before it started. And the irony of the legendary batter flying in to Sri Lanka and being a passenger on the bench through his team's hasty exit added to the abjectness of their collective display.

For now, the "forensic review" that selector Tony Dodemaide said will be undertaken should be interesting to keep an eye on. But the question remains around how many fans and non-team related stakeholders will pay heed or even notice. And even if they do, then for how long. Footy season is nearly here, and like many in the "T20s don't matter" camp around Australia have indicated, "who cares, we've already won the Ashes this summer".

As was evident on the faces of every Australian player on Friday night in Pallekele, it will hurt for a long time. This does matter. For as misadventures in a World Cup go, this was it.

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