The morning after the night before is when clarity kicks in. You shuffle into the main part of the house and suddenly you can see the snowdrifts of bottles that you didn’t notice accumulating. You spot the burn marks on the carpet, the crack in the bottom window, the slice of chocolate cake smeared along the blade of the ceiling fan. You know that this version of you is the person who has to deal with it. With clarity, nothing is clearer than regret.
The morning after Australia’s match-surrendering batting collapse in Delhi, regret was palpable. Not just at failure but failure from a position of strength. Walking in to speak to reporters at the team hotel, it was palpable from coach Andrew McDonald. “It’s a lot of hard work to get into that position, and that’s the real disappointing part,” he said. “Those positions in India aren’t handed over easily, and we had one. We had a really good look at it. That’s the frustration and within the group we know how much we’re going to need to invest to get back into that. Are we prepared for that? Yeah, we are. Are we up to that challenge again? Yes, we are.”
