Pallekele (Sri Lanka), February 19 Australia will aim to end one of their most disastrous World Cup campaigns on a positive note when they face the underdogs, Oman, in their inconsequential final outing of this year's T20 tournament here on Friday.
Australia, the limited-overs giants with six ODI and one T20I World Cup titles, were eliminated in the group stage after Tuesday's game between Zimbabwe and Ireland in Kandy was washed out, which paved the way for the much-improved African side's entry into the Super Eights from Group B along with tournament co-hosts Sri Lanka.
An injury-ravaged Australia showed glimpses of their batting prowess in the first half of their innings in the loss against Sri Lanka, but it was their shocking defeat to Zimbabwe that really derailed their campaign, forcing the administrators back home to announce a "forensic review" of their performance once the players return to the country.
The forgettable campaign was marked by injuries to key players, poor form, and baffling selection calls. As a result, the 2021 champions failed to progress beyond the group stage for the first time since 2009.
Australia, despite the absence of their star pace trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc, entered the tournament as one of the favorites, but things quickly went downhill after their loss to Zimbabwe.
Now, before heading home, they will want to secure a win and then focus on the arduous process of long-term rebuilding, particularly with many key players now over 30.
Australia will enter the game as overwhelming favorites despite their disappointing campaign, which saw them win only one of their three matches so far, a 67-run victory over Ireland.
In the last meeting between the two countries in the 2024 edition of the tournament in the Americas, Australia emerged victorious by 39 runs, and quite a few players from both teams were part of that match.
Australia has struggled to live up to expectations in ICC tournaments since their title triumph in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
They were eliminated in the Super Eights stage of the last T20 World Cup after defeats to India and Afghanistan and reached the semifinals of the Champions Trophy last year, when Pakistan hosted the tournament with eventual champions India playing all their matches in the UAE.
This, however, has been their worst outing in recent years.
On the other hand, Oman has also struggled significantly throughout this tournament, losing all three of their group matches by big margins.
Players like Jatinder Singh and Sufyan Mehmood will be hoping to make an impression as they take to the field for one last time in the tournament.
Teams (from):
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa, Steve Smith.
Oman: Jatinder Singh (c), Aamir Kaleem, Hammad Mirza, Wasim Ali, Karan Sonavale, Jiten Ramanandi, Vinayak Shukla (wk), Sufyan Mehmood, Nadeem Khan, Shah Faisal, Shakeel Ahmed, Mohammad Nadeem, Jay Odedra, Ashish Odedara, Shafiq Jan.
Match starts at 7 PM IST.
