CHENNAI: In many ways, the 2017 World Cup semifinal was as much a turning point in Australian cricket as it was for India.
After dominating the world for over a decade — despite the small slump in 2009-10 — the defeat was an eyeopener for them.
They had to take a hard look in the mirror, make structural changes and rebrand themselves.
Five years on, that is exactly what they have done. After clinching two T20 World Cups, they took it up further in the ODIs, losing just two matches in 37 since Harmanpreet Kaur’s 171 that put them out of the World Cup in 2017.
They have created a pool of 30-odd players, and anyone can just walk into the XI and win matches. Australia had become world beaters again.
They are this ODI juggernaut who are steamrolling every team that’s coming their way in the tournament so far with one player or the other putting their hands up.
As they take on India in a World Cup, yet again, the scars of 2017 have wornoff.
At least that is what head coach Matthew Mott said. “Well, for us it’s a non-event internally,” he said in the pre-match conference on Friday.
“We’re just looking forward to another match. Everyone seems to be beating everyone at the moment. So to get out in front with another win would be a huge advantage and then we can sort of dictate our own terms on the finals,” he said.
Despite losing two of their four matches, India, too, are no different in this regard.
Although they have as many as seven players from the previous edition, a large part of the squad are younger players, who haven’t been through the heartbreak of 2017.
In fact, more than the epic semifinal, India are keen on taking confidence from how they ended Australia’s 26-match winning streak last year.
“Everyone knows what has happened in 2017 but I think it’s better that we don’t really think about it,” said Smriti Mandhana before adding, “more than 2017, we definitely had a word about how we went about in the series against Australia when we were touring Australia and the kind of cricket we played there and the kind of bowling we did there. So I think that’s something which we have had discussions around and that’s something which has given a lot of confidence to all the players.”
India vs Australia live on Star Sports @ 6.30 AM