‘Who cares if I do my hamstring!’ Australia’s World Cup turning point

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Adam Zampa was delirious. Australia had no wins from two games in the World Cup. And Sri Lanka were 0-125 batting first against Pat Cummins’ men in Lucknow.

After emerging as the World Cup’s leading wicket-taker in Australia’s run of four unbeaten games since, Zampa has spoken about that crucible moment for the team, and the rallying cry of all-rounder Marcus Stoinis in particular.

Adam Zampa claimed wickets from successive deliveries against Sri Lanka.Credit: Getty

It was a point where he and Stoinis discussed the need to break out of workaday mode and, put simply, “have a crack”. This was tougher for Zampa than most after back spasms that had at times left him struggling to breathe.

“‘Stoin’ was the best,” Zampa told The Grade Cricketer podcast. “He came up to me and could see I was in pain, and I think he had a bit of a niggle and he was like ‘mate, let’s just have a crack hey, let’s just have a f—ing go. Who cares if you do your back even worse and I do my hamstring, rip it off the bone, we’re going to go home f—ing losers anyway if we don’t have a crack, so let’s go’.

“That was probably my turning point, I was like, ‘yeah let’s just have a crack, let’s go’.

“We just told ourselves to stay in the competition because we knew we were in a compromising position if this game gets away from us, then, 3-0 with six games left is not great. So we just stayed in it, and we know with a team like Sri Lanka if you get on top of them, the game can change really easily. So there wasn’t really panic stations or anger, it was just ‘we need to try and stay in the contest’.”

For Stoinis, the commitment to have a go came at some personal cost. He bowled aggressively and effectively against Pakistan in the subsequent win in Bengaluru, but came out of the game with a calf complaint and has not played since.

Zampa, though, has been pivotal to Australia’s improvement. By the time he had bowled his first three overs against Sri Lanka, Zampa had the combined figures of 1-145 from 21 overs so far in the tournament. But after Cummins claimed the first two Sri Lankan wickets, Zampa has turned things around in sensational fashion: 15 wickets at 10.66 from 28 overs since.

At the same time, Zampa found himself oddly under attack for not singing the national anthem before the games against Sri Lanka and Pakistan. He confessed that the strong painkillers required to play against Sri Lanka left him without any recollection of the anthem before that game.

A deep contrarian streak explained the repeat in Bengaluru.

Marcus Stoinis celebrates one of his two wickets against Pakistan.Credit: Getty

“I may have taken a couple of Panadeine Forte pre-game to try and get through,” he said.

“I don’t have much recollection of the first 15 overs of the game, let alone the national anthem. So it was surprising to see that article come out. I didn’t even know I didn’t sing the anthem. People asked me why I didn’t sing it the second time and I basically just said ‘because I’m extremely stubborn’.”

Currently fourth on the cup table, Australia face England on Saturday night, with Jos Buttler’s team in the midst of a wretched campaign. By winning just one of their first six games, England are at risk of missing qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy, to be contested by the top eight teams.

Having lost to England in the semi-finals of the 2019 tournament at Edgbaston, Cummins and company have the chance to end their World Cup defence this time around.

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