Australia have just two days to regroup ahead of their clash with co-hosts Sri Lanka in Kandy
Ben Dwarshuis’ World Cup debut “didn’t go the way” he or his side wanted but the left-arm quick insists Australia’s T20 group have played enough together over the past 12 months to be able to bounce back quickly.
The loss to Zimbabwe in Colombo on Friday marked Dwarshuis’ first appearance for at a major global tournament after leading the wickets tally for Australia at last year’s Champions Trophy.
But it was a tougher World Cup initiation for the 31-year-old, conceding 40 from four wicketless overs and falling to what will go down as one of the catches of the tournament late in their shock 23-run defeat to the African nation.
“You dream as a kid to play in a World Cup and obviously it didn’t go the way we wanted (against Zimbabwe), so the boys are a little bit flat at the moment,” he told cricket.com.au post-match.
“Our read was they weren’t getting away from us, but we we’re obviously struggling to take wickets and at the back end they had a couple of 10-plus run overs, which is something as a bowling group that you try to avoid.
“We still came off thinking (their 2-169) was about par and maybe slightly under, so we felt like we had a good chance. The batting just didn’t go the way that we drew it up but that happens.
“They bowled exceptionally and then fielded really well to back it up. They made a number of boundary line saves, which probably saved them 10 or 15 runs throughout the innings as well, so credit to their attitude in the field in particular.”
It was the second time in as many matches that Australia have been beaten by Zimbabwe at a T20 World Cup after losing their inaugural T20 encounter in 2007, but the tournament’s condensed schedule leaves them little time to dwell ahead of their next match against Sri Lanka on Monday.
The Australian squad, boosted by the arrival of travelling reserve Steve Smith, arrived in the central Sri Lankan city of Kandy on Saturday knowing they need wins against the co-hosts (Tuesday 12.30am AEDT) and Oman (Saturday 12.30am AEDT) to keep their campaign alive.
While the former champions are missing all-format stars Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood who were ruled out of the tournament through injury, their absences throughout the latest two-year cycle has created opportunities for the current bowling group to gel.
Since the start of their 5-0 whitewash of West Indies in the Caribbean last year, Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett have each played 12 of Australia’s 21 T20 matches, while Nathan Ellis has featured 14 times.
Left-arm spinners Matthew Kuhnemann and Cooper Connolly have both made eight appearances, with Dwarshuis taking the third most wickets for the side in that period with 17 behind Adam Zampa (26) and Ellis (22).
“We’ve played a lot of cricket together over the last 12 months; it’s been a busy T20 schedule,” Dwarshuis said.
“That’s not the first game that we’ve lost as a group and we’ve always bounced back pretty well, so we’ll be optimistic heading up to Kandy that we can turn it around from what we put out there (against Zimbabwe).
“The beauty of T20 cricket in particular, is there’s often a short turnaround, so we’ve only got two days to bounce back and put on a good show up in Kandy.
“If we can still come out with three wins from the group stage, it puts us in a really strong position, so the focus is on going back-to-back (against Sri Lanka and Oman) and then see where that puts us.”
2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Australia squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: Sean Abbott, Steve Smith
Australia’s Group Stage fixtures
February 11: beat Ireland by 67 runs
February 13: lost to Zimbabwe by 23 runs
February 16: v Sri Lanka, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 17, 12:30am AEDT)
February 20: v Oman, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 21, 12:30am AEDT)
Australia’s Super Eight fixtures
(Assuming all seeded teams qualify)
February 23: Australia (X2) v West Indies (X3), Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (Feb 24, 12:30am AEDT)
February 26: India (X1) v Australia (X2), MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (Feb 27, 12:30am AEDT)
March 1: Australia (X2) v South Africa (X4), Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, 8:30pm AEDT
Click here for the full tournament schedule
All matches will be broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video
