London: They might have failed to conquer the final frontier on their last tour of India, but Australia head coach Andrew McDonald feels their “subcontinent journey” helped them get the World Test Championship mace, a PTI report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
After their miss-out in the 2019-21 cycle, Australia on Sunday became the first team to win ICC world titles across formats when they defeated India by 209 runs in a lopsided WTC Final at the Oval here.
“You can string down series in isolation, you can talk about the subcontinent journey where we went from Pakistan to Sri Lanka into India,” McDonald said. “We had to navigate through that. So, it was a tricky WTC cycle and I think the wins in the subcontinent got us here.”
The Pat Cummins-led side had enjoyed some splendid wins in the subcontinent before travelling to India in pursuit of its first Test series triumph since 2004-05 in the final leg of the WTC cycle.
Before travelling to India, Australia won a three-match series in Pakistan with a crushing 115-run defeat of the hosts in Lahore in March.
Then in Sri Lanka, they won the first Test by 10 wickets only to go down by an innings and 39 runs in a drawn 1-1 series.
On turning Indian conditions where the matches failed to last the distance, Australia’s biggest bright spot in a 1-2 loss was their nine-wicket win in the third Test in Indore. It also sealed their WTC Final berth with a round to spare in the 2021-23 cycle.
Bazball on England’s mind as Ashes loom
London: Ben Stokes is well aware of the threat posed by World Test Championship winners Australia but says England have “found something that works” and will not back down from their high-risk, high-reward style of play in the upcoming Ashes series.
Stokes and coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum have ushered in a fearless approach that has injected fresh excitement into Test cricket with England winning 11 of their last 13 Tests under the duo. Stokes ruled out discarding that ‘Bazball’ approach in the Ashes opener at Edgbaston from Friday. “We know the threat that Australia pose but we’ve found something that works and has been successful,” he said.
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