BENGALURU: David Warner, in his cricket gear, was the first Australian to walk towards the nets at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on Thursday. A couple of minutes later, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne also joined. They were all ready to take strike, full 15-20 minutes earlier than their scheduled practice session, which started with throwdowns at three separate nets.
Central figures of Australia's batting, the trio's determination stems from their below-par outings in the first three World Cup matches. They would be keen to allow their bats to do the talking against Pakistan here on Friday.
Warner (41, 13 and 11 runs), Labuschagne (27, 46, 40) and Smith (46, 19, 0) have failed to bring their A game and make it count in India. Other batters have not made much of an impact too, including Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell, who have accumulated 59 and 49 runs respectively in the tournament. The absence of Travis Head, who suffered a fracture in his hand last month, has been starkly felt. The south paw will join the squad in Delhi on Sunday. Barring Labuschagne, none of the Australians aggregate even 100 runs. Compared to the other teams, Australia paint a sorry picture.
In the first two games against India and South Africa, Australia failed to breach even the 200-run mark. Even against the Islanders, the Kangaroos lost five wickets before eclipsing the target of 210 in the 36th over.
Heading into their fourth game of the quadrennial event, Cummins backed his players to deliver at the high-scoring venue. "It is going to be a high-scoring, smaller field here. The pitch is always good. Batting is super important," said Cummins on Thursday.
"The way the guys started the last game (against Sri Lanka) set the tone, Mitchie (Marsh) and Davey (Warner) taking the game on from the first over. That's what we want from our players. They are working hard and doing all the right things. I'm sure plenty of runs are around the corner."
