Andrew McDonald (Australia Coach) pre-match Press Conference - 23rd June 2024
[Reporter:]
How much discussion went into the decision to leave Mitchell Starc out? Obviously, it was a pitch where you needed Ashton Agar, a second spinner, but in terms of Mitchell given his pedigree in World Cups and all that sort of thing?
[Andrew McDonald:]
It's always a tough decision to leave Mitch Starc out of a team, but I think as you saw from the way the game unfolded, I think Ashton was suited to these conditions and we needed to make room. We knew that we were going to need more than eight overs to spin on that surface and it's probably something we've been planning and preparing for once we knew we were at this venue and we look at our squad of 15 and set it before the tournament. We're going to need options and flexibility, but it's always a difficult decision. You never know whether it's going to be right or wrong, but I thought Ashton bowled incredibly well today. Used his skill, some good arm balls, found some purchase early, and he made it tricky to navigate through those first few overs, and we got two out of the power play, which then set up, clearly, the bowling from that end with him and Zamps operating. Unfortunately, we weren't able to take those early wickets, had a couple of opportunities and no doubt we'll speak about the fielding.
[Reporter:]
Just on the fielding, the team usually sets very high standards. How disappointed were you with that? Is that probably the worst fielding effort you've seen while you've been coach?
[Andrew McDonald:]
I mean, we've had some bad fielding days. We're not immune from that as a team and tonight, yeah, we weren't at our best. I don't really want to talk too much around that because you've got to pay credit also to your opponent in these situations. I thought the platform that the openers laid to give them an opportunity to get above that 130-140 score, which we knew was considering that around par. And then we fought back well through the middle and the back end. I thought we were excellent at the back end. So, yeah, I mean, yeah, we're disappointed with the standards in the field. Is this group capable of more than that? 100% and we've seen that. So, we've got a short turnaround now, we've got to really shift our focus into that recovery mode. We've got a travel day tomorrow and then get ourselves sharp for India and it's going to be a huge game and we've been in this situation before, all too familiar.
[Reporter:]
It's been two games where you've had poor games in the field, right? Thinking back to the Scotland one as well. Skill, execute, is it an attitude thing or a skill thing? Just interested in what your early diagnosis might be?
[Andrew McDonald:]
I think it's never exact as to what contributes and they're all isolated incidences as well. So, I think people will talk about attitude and the boys are ready to go tonight. We didn't execute in the field and that can sometimes happen and we didn't quite execute with the bat as well, and there's moments with the ball. So, when you string all three phases of the game, can we find the 20-plus runs to narrow the gap and win the game? 100% we can. So yeah, yes, the fielding was disappointing, but there's other areas of the game that we need to tidy up and we weren't at our best. And I thought Afghanistan were pretty close to their best.
[Reporter:]
And no doubt Ash was a really good inclusion for this game. But could would you reframe that thinking around Starc versus Agar as to actually Starc versus Cummins and Hazelwood in hindsight?
[Andrew McDonald:]
Yeah, I mean, when you're hopping around the islands, the conditions change dramatically, and we got what we expected tonight. So, as I said, I was comfortable with that decision, and now we've got to turn our focus to India, a totally different lineup, a totally different surface, and we've got to make good decisions at the selection table. And that's part of the art of navigating through a World Cup is to get those decisions right. And, as I said, you can't play the same game twice. You can't put Mitch Starc in there or Nathan Ellis and work out what the game would have looked like. We went with Ashton, we backed him in and we've got full trust in whoever we call on that 15 to get a job done and yeah, we've got a task at hand.
[Reporter:]
Just on that, on focusing on the next game, Andrew, the fact that the turnaround is like, I mean, it's literally you're playing the game tomorrow. It's nearly 1am. So how do you make that adjustment? And it's not here, you have to get the flight, go there. Does it work to your advantage that it's such a short turnaround? Or do you have to work around it?
[Andrew McDonald:]
No, I mean, once the draw comes out, you're well aware of what you need to do and, in your planning, and preparation and that goes into it months before you get here and we feel like as I said we've made some good decisions in our planning and prep and coming in and yeah, we've got another challenge with a short turnaround every team's facing that, so yeah, it'll be recovery mode tonight and tomorrow. Give the boys a bit of space and yeah, we won't drill into it too much tonight. As you said, it's pretty early in the morning. So, getting that information in will happen in the morning of the Indian game. So, a bit of space. The boys know where we went wrong. They're an experienced group. But there's no doubt when we come back together the morning of the Indian game, we need to be at our best. And to be at our best, we need recovery. And if people don't recover in time, then clearly, we'll make decisions based around that. But so far so good, everyone's pulled up well.
[Reporter:]
And just you spoke about the format as well. I mean, you had a really good tournament so far and just the timing of what that bad game suddenly puts you in a position where you're in a must win scenario. Is that just tournament play? Like, I mean, can you just go from having a great tournament to suddenly be in that position, like mentally?
[Andrew McDonald:]
Yeah, and we're well aware that that can happen. You look at the other side of the draw, South Africa could lose one game and potentially be staring at an exit and it could be the same for us. It could be the same for Afghanistan could be the same for India. So, you know how tight it is when you get to the pointy end - There's no doubt net run rate there'll be plenty of discussions around hypothesizing around that, around what it looks like and we played the second last game and Bangladesh play Afghanistan the last game Is that an advantage and things like that, but ultimately, we're going to take care of what's in our control and that's India no doubt one of the tournament favourites. We'd like to think we're up there in the conversation but yeah, we're going to get to work in the next game and yeah, shift it pretty quickly.
[Reporter:]
And playing on a wicket that everyone seems to think is maybe the best in the tournament in St. Lucia. Obviously out there you guys have to change how you go about things and not saying you can't do that but is it a bit of an advantage to be playing in territory that you kind of know a little bit more of?
[Andrew McDonald:]
I'd like to think we can change it pretty quickly, it's the art of international cricket different surfaces - different challenges - different opponents in tournament play. But no doubt we've played one game there we've had a look at it we're familiar with it, we were there not long ago in I think it was a five-game series as well. So yeah, I'd like to think that whatever 11 we go with will be best suited to those conditions and against that opponent and that's the art of selection.
[Reporter:]
Andrew, I know you sort of knew the schedule a long way out and there's nothing you can do about it, but are you surprised at just how challenging your travel schedule seems to be compared to other teams, playing these late games, and having to play only one game in a location and then travel onwards when other teams have, yeah, certainly had a completely different schedule.
[Andrew McDonald:]
I haven't looked at what the other teams are doing to be perfectly honest, so I'm not aware of what their tournaments look like. We know from the start what we're in for. We've planned and prepared around that, and scheduling is always going to be a debate. It's a debate outside of World Cups. The tournament's definitely sped up, short turnarounds, becomes a little bit attritional, there's no doubt about that and we've just got to make good decisions around how our players pull up and it's no different to any other team. So, we'd like to think that we're planned, prepared, the players are physically prepared for the demands of it. So, I think you'll see a 15-player squad all available on the selection table. We're going to make a good decision today, I was going to say tomorrow, in terms of selection. So, we hopefully finalise our team before match day.
