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Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne have joined Glenn Maxwell in abandoning a traditional fixation with making centuries to score runs at the high tempo Australia need from them at this World Cup.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the view of former captain Aaron Finch, who spoke of how the evolution of ODI cricket into a more supercharged format, akin to Twenty20, had compelled seasoned players to move out of their former mindsets.<\/p>\n
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Power and precision: Australian duo Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith<\/span>Credit: <\/span>AP<\/cite><\/p>\n Pat Cummins\u2019 side faces India in Chennai on Sunday in its tournament opener, with the hosts potentially losing their prolific opener Shubman Gill due to illness. Reports out of India suggested that the 24-year-old has been tested for dengue fever.<\/p>\n Back in 2018, when Justin Langer was installed as Australia\u2019s coach, Maxwell was left out of the Test team and placed on the fringes of the white-ball XI on the basis that he did not make hundreds often enough.<\/p>\n Smith and Labuschagne, meanwhile, brought prolific scoring to the Test side, but often got in each other\u2019s way in the middle overs of a one-day game because they were trying to set a platform for a big score rather than continuing momentum through an innings.<\/p>\n Finch, whose international career spanned the move from fast starts, consolidation and final acceleration to a more consistently high tempo across 50 overs, said that Smith and Labuschagne had shown welcome recent evidence that they were now working more seamlessly with the team\u2019s plan to keep up the attack throughout.<\/p>\n Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith participate in a traditional Holi celebration in Ahmedabad this year.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n \u201cSteve and Marnus are both ridiculously high-skilled,\u201d Finch told this masthead. \u201cAll it is is changing that mindset slightly away from \u2018Right, I\u2019m top four, I\u2019ve got to get a big hundred to have an impact on the game\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes it isn\u2019t the big hundred, sometimes it\u2019s the intent you show at the start of the innings that gets you to 25 off 20 balls, continues that momentum and makes it easier on the next guy coming in, makes it easier on your partner at the other end who might be going as well. So it\u2019s just a mindset shift in that way.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019ve got guys as skilled as them, they can do that easily. It\u2019s important when you\u2019ve got players like that who aren\u2019t all-out brute force, they\u2019re touch players, skilful at using their hands, that they don\u2019t try to compete with guys who have a higher dot ball percentage but hit more fours and sixes to make up for it. It\u2019s just about doing your job slightly differently to the way other guys do it and embracing that.\u201d<\/p>\n Maxwell, meanwhile, is in a very different mental space to the cloudy days of four years ago when he struggled to produce his batting best at the 2019 World Cup, later revealing he was getting peppered with short balls at training in between games.<\/p>\n \u201cI think for a while there he probably tried to change his game slightly, or a lot to be honest, because he wanted to be a top order player that got bulk runs and the big hundreds and stuff like that,\u201d Finch said.<\/p>\n \u201cAs a young player you\u2019re always drilled to get big hundreds and get runs and win games, whereas his role … he\u2019s so damaging that he can win a game in 10 overs or five overs with bat and ball. So becoming comfortable with that role, knowing \u2018I\u2019m not going to get the chance to bat at four, but I\u2019ll really embrace this role and be as destructive as I can\u2019, that\u2019s eased his mind a lot I think.\u201d<\/p>\n Finch, who is commentating on all of Australia\u2019s matches in India, believes that in addition to those two sides, Pakistan, England, South Africa and New Zealand are all legitimate chances to lift the trophy. All their captains, he believes, will be resting slightly easier in the knowledge that Travis Head will miss at least the first part of the tournament with a fractured hand.<\/p>\n \u201cTravis Head\u2019s such a huge loss for the start of the tournament because he\u2019s somebody who opposition teams really fear because of how quick he can score,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can bowl as well as possible and he can still destroy you on his day.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re the kind of players that keep you up at night as a captain and as a leadership when you\u2019re planning for the opposition, because they\u2019re the ones you know, no matter what planning goes into it, if it\u2019s their day they can be brutal.<\/p>\n \u201cI think of Quinton de Kock, Jonny Bairstow, Rohit Sharma or Jos Buttler. When they\u2019re having a day out, they\u2019re so hard to stop and at times they can take the game away from you. So I think Trav will be a big out in that regard, particularly in the power play.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n