Did Australias ICC Dominance End After This Mitchell Marsh Snapshot?

A few years back, the Australian team was at the top of the world after winning the 2023 World Cup. On the same day, a photo went viral of Mitchell Marsh with the World Cup trophy. And since then, the team has not even managed to reach the knockout stages of any tournament.

19 November 2023, the day when millions of hearts broke after India lost the World Cup final. While the Indians weeped for the crucial loss, the Australian team might have gone too far with their celebrations. Mitchell Marsh clicked a photo with the trophy where he used it as a footrest, and this photo might have turned things upside down for the team.

The trophy for which a team had to fight for months and wait for years was treated like that for just a photo. And now, the Australian men's team are finding it way too difficult to even reach close to win any ICC title. Currently in the T20 World Cup 2026, the team has almost been knocked out of the group stages of the tournament, after losing to Sri Lanka.

Here's how the Australian team has performed in the ICC events after this photo.

T20 World Cup 2024

Australia had started the T20 World Cup 2024 with a bang. In the group stages, they were placed in Group B with England, Scotland, Namibia, and Oman. And the Aussies were able to win every single game of their group stages, which helped them to reach the Super Eight stages of the tournament.

But this is where the troubles really started to begin for the team. Australia was also able to start the Super Eight with a win over Bangladesh, and they had to win a game or two more to secure a spot in the semi-final stages. But the team went on to lose their crucial game against Afghanistan by 21 runs, making the stakes against India high.

Pic Source: ESPNcricinfo

India and Australia faced each other in their last Super Eight clash. The Indian team wanted to take revenge for the World Cup loss so badly, they knocked Australia out of the tournament. Australia ended up losing this game by 24 runs, and they finished third in the Super Eight Group 1.

Champions Trophy 2025

Winning the 2023 World Cup had provided the Australian team with the opportunity to reach the Champions Trophy. Each and every game comes out to be crucial in this tournament, but the Australian team has faced some serious injury issues.

Pic Source: ESPNcricinfo

Australia was placed in the second group, which had teams such as England, Afghanistan and South Africa. They started off the campaign with an impressive victory over England. But their next two games were interrupted due to the weather conditions. Finishing second in the group stages with just one win, Australia reached the semi-final stages and were set to face India.

Two powerhouses went against each other for a high stakes clash. Steven Smith (73) and Alex Carey (61) helped Australia to score 264 runs. But the Indian team had the chase master, Virat Kohli, who scored 84 runs in this game. KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer also played some crucial knocks, which helped India to reach the finals and Australia was knocked out of the tournament.

Pic Source: ESPNcricinfo

What added more to Australia's worries was that Steve Smith also announced his retirement after this game.

WTC Final 2025

Even after all their troubles in the limited overs format, the Australian team was doing well in Tests. They even qualified for the World Test Championship final and had to go against South Africa at The Lord's stadium. Australia had already won the series against India and South Africa, which boosted their confidence levels.

Australia ruled the majority of the game. They started off being all out at the score of 212, which was considered a low total. But the bowlers did well to bowl out South Africa for just 138 runs in the second innings of the game. With Alex Carey and Mitchell Starc showing some fine knocks, which helped Australia to score 207 runs in their second innings.

Pic Source: ESPNcricinfo

Now, South Africa had the target of 282 runs to chase. Australia was able to put them at the score of 70/2, but Temba Bavuma and Aiden Markram played some fine knocks. Bavuma scored 66, while Aiden Markram brought up a century, scoring 136 runs off 207 balls. South Africa finished the chase with 5 wickets remaining, and another trophy went out of Australia's hands.

T20 World Cup 2026

And now in the T20 World Cup 2026, the Australian team is almost out of the tournament in the group stages. The team shared its group with Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Ireland, and Oman. But they have ended up losing two of their first three games.

Losing to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe has pushed them down to the third spot. Now, they will be praying for Zimbabwe to lose both of their games and improving their NRR to be qualified for the next stage. However, Zimbabwe is just one win away to secure their spot in the Super Eight stages.