McDonald sees no issues with short turnaround time between games

Australia took on Afghanistan in a late match on June 22 (Saturday) in St Vincent, and in less than 48 hours of that match, they will have to fly to St Lucia and take on India in a morning match on June 24 (Monday) in a crucial tie. The equation is simple: the team that wins the game will progress to the semi-final. 

With a spot in the next round of the T20 World Cup 2024 on the line, Australia head coach Andrew McDonald says that he and his side have no problems with such a short turnaround as they were aware of what they were up against before they entered the tournament.

"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, it'll be recovery mode tonight and tomorrow," McDonald said ahead of the India clash. 

"Give the boys a bit of space, and we won't drill into it too much tonight. 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."

Australia had a poor night against Afghanistan where a poor fielding display was one of the main reasons behind them succumbing to their first defeat of the tournament. McDonald knows another bad day could see the 2021 champions crash out of the tournament.

"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," McDonald said. 

"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 hypothesising 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 shift it pretty quickly."

McDonald admits Australia were not at their best against Afghanistan on the fielding front. 

"We've had some bad fielding days. We're not immune from that as a team and tonight we weren't at our best," the head coach admits. 

"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 considered 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."

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