CWC 2023: “Every game now becomes almost like final,” says Australia captain Pat Cummins

In their WC campaign opener, Australia suffered a 6-wicket defeat against hosts India, followed by a 134-run defeat to South Africa on October 12.

Lucknow: Australia captain Pat Cummins said that due to their poor start to the competition, his side is compelled to regard every ICC World Cup 2023 encounter as a final.

The five-time champions Australia will look to register their first win in the tournament when they take on Sri Lanka at the ‘Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium’ in Lucknow on Monday.

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In their WC campaign opener, Australia suffered a 6-wicket defeat against hosts India, followed by a 134-run defeat to South Africa on October 12.

“Hopefully. I mean, we’re obviously 0-2, so we’ve got to start winning and start winning quickly. Every game now becomes almost like a final. You’ve got to win just about all of them,” Cummins said during a pre-match press conference.

“Yeah, it’s not ideal at all. Yeah, I think everyone’s, well, after the last game was a little bit flat, but the last couple of days have been really good. Everyone’s kind of rolled up their sleeves and want to try and get to work and make amends,” he added.

However, the Australia skipper also said the mood in the Australian camp is still strong despite being winless from their opening two matches.

“So, the mood in the camp has been fantastic. Everyone’s great. Everyone’s desperate to turn it around. I think looking back at 2019, India and South Africa were the two teams that we lost to in the round games there. I think in the last year, they’re kind of the two teams that we’ve had the most trouble against. So, you know, the opportunity now is we’ve got some teams we haven’t played for a while that we’ve had a lot of success against and be really confident when we go out there,” the Australia skipper said.

Australia is the tournament’s most successful team, however, the current Aussie squad has a track record of poor results.

“Yeah, no still haven’t really quite put my finger on what playing in the Australian way means And I’ve been playing for a long time – no doubt we haven’t been up to the standard that we like to hold. We’ve been off the mark and outplayed in both games. When we’re at our best, we’re putting big runs on the board,” Cummins stated.

“We’re putting the pressure back on the opposition. Our bowlers are taking wickets through the middle. So, we haven’t been able to pull any of that together so far. So yeah, we know what makes us a really good team. Again, it wasn’t that long ago. We’re number one in the world. So, we don’t have to look back too far to work out when we’re playing our best,” he added.