A rebuild for Australia is imminent after the erstwhile white ball titans’ group-stage elimination from the T20 World Cup that marks as one of the most disastrous campaigns in the team’s limited-overs history.
Mitchell Marsh’s squad was humiliated by Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka before a postponed match on Tuesday guaranteed their relegation. They had arrived at the world championship with injuries, players out of form, and little preparation.
With Mitchell Starc retired from T20 internationals and Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood sidelined with injuries, the 2021 champions and six-time 50-over World Cup winners, who were once admired for their big-tournament skills, looked lost without the leadership and bowling ability of their big three pacers.
With a dead rubber against cricket minnows Oman, the Australians will now have to deal with a lot of questions about selections and team management from commentators and former cricketers.
Australia will be aiming for a greater prize when cricket is brought back to the Olympics in Los Angeles a few months prior to hosting the next T20 World Cup in 2028. Australia has not done themselves any favors, even if the final qualifying procedure for the six-nation Olympic competition has not yet been finalized.
Australia will suffer from their early elimination, and automatic qualifying will be determined by the world rankings. Rivals from Oceania, New Zealand, who advanced to the Super Eight stage of the World Cup, will feel more confident and might even be able to steal Australia’s place at the Games.
As several of their aging champions battle for fitness and near the conclusion of their careers, Australia will have to deal with what seems to be a sign of their sporting mortality. Due to lower back issues, Test and ODI captain Cummins has only participated in one Ashes Test since the West Indies tour in mid-2025, while Hazlewood has been out for months due to Achilles and hamstring injuries.
Despite not being selected for a game, master batter Steve Smith, who was drafted into the T20 World Cup squad as a late injury replacement, has stated that he intends to win an Olympic medal in Los Angeles. But when the Games begin, he will be 39.
All-rounders Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell, who have been pillars of Australia’s white-ball supremacy, are among the other prominent players of a similar generation. Few players have regularly delivered strong performances, despite selectors’ efforts to bring in a new generation of players, giving fans hope for the future.
At the T20 World Cup, hitters have been harsh on the speed trio of Nathan Ellis, Ben Dwarshuis, and Xavier Bartlett, while all-rounder Cooper Connolly’s dismal batting campaign continued in Sri Lanka. Australia has never placed much emphasis on T20 cricket, and their early World Cup elimination might not lead to the kind of in-depth analysis that an Ashes loss would.
But with the Olympics and a home World Cup approaching, Australia will be forced to start rebuilding a white ball side whose reputation has virtually vanished.
