T20 World Cup 2022: They didn’t have the aggressiveness – Michael Clarke on Australia’s performance against Afghanistan

The defending champions Australia were knocked out of the T20 World Cup after they finished in third place in Group 1 of the Super 12 stage. The hosts suffered a big loss of 89 runs in their opening match against New Zealand, which hampered their Net Run Rate.

In fact, Australia needed to beat Afghanistan by a gargantuan margin to boost their NRR but they could only manage a four-run win. Former Australian captain Michael Clarke believes the team lacked aggressiveness in their game and they were also sluggish in the field against Afghanistan.

Rashid Khan catapulted his attack at the fag end of the innings as he smashed 48 runs off 23 balls and kept his team in the game till the end. Meanwhile, Australia had a chance to register a big win against Ireland but they could only win by 42 runs after Lorcan Tucker scored 71 runs.

Speaking on Big Sports Breakfast, Michael Clarke said, “The frustrating thing for me is – I think they missed a trick against Ireland and then against Afghanistan, I don’t know what I was watching. It felt like they were doing everything they could just to beat Afghanistan.”

He added: “They had to walk out there against Afghanistan and say, ‘We’re going to make 200 and bowl you out for 100.’ But they just didn’t have that aggressiveness, they didn’t have that fire in the belly, even in the field they looked a bit sluggish in the field.”

Clarke feels the Aaron Finch-led team got a number of things wrong in the T20 World Cup. The former skipper believes leaving out Mitchell Starc for the match against Afghanistan was a big howler.

“I just think they got a number of things wrong and I made it very clear in the commentary that I think leaving Mitchell Starc out of the team against Afghanistan was one of those things.”

“They’ve got a lot to look at, it’s not just the players. I think some of the decisions made over the past few months leading up to the World Cup they need to look at.”

Australia also didn’t have the rub of the green on their side as their match against arch-rivals England was washed out due to rain.