Revealing the Inside Story behind Australia’s success in the ICC Tournaments

(Australian Cricket Team with the 2023 ODI World Cup)

6 ODI World Cups, 2 Champions Trophies, 1 T20 World Cup, and 1 World Test Championship Mace, have been the story of Australia in the ICC Tournaments where they have dominated each and every team playing. Be it India, England, New Zealand, South Africa or any other team, the Australian team always comes out at the top and hence grabs the ultimate prize with ease. With the likes of Shane Warne, Ricky Ponting, Allan Border, Adam Gilchrist, Brett Lee, Steve Smith, David Warner, and others, the team has dominated in the ICC tournaments because of the way they prepare for the big games along with the mindset that makes them different from rest of the team. Now, let’s see what makes them different in the big tournaments and how other teams have failed to make it big against them.

Australia’s dominance in the ICC Tournaments

The year was 1975 when the International Cricket Council came up with the idea of the World Cup where all the major cricketing nations would meet to decide the ultimate winner of the game. Till 1986, Australia wasn’t able to win even a single ICC Trophy but what happened after that completely changed Australian cricket as it was the 1987 ODI World Cup where the Australian team defeated England by 7 runs to lift their first ICC Trophy and till date, they have been the winners of 9 more ICC Tournaments and are leading the charge currently.

Name of the Tournament	Captain of the Team	Opposition in the Finals	Win Margin
1987 ODI World Cup	Allan Border	Australia defeated England	By 7 runs
1999 ODI World Cup	Steve Waugh	Australia defeated Pakistan	By 8 wickets
2003 ODI World Cup	Ricky Ponting	Australia defeated India	By 125 runs
2006 Champions Trophy	Ricky Ponting	Australia defeated the West Indies	By 8 wickets
2007 ODI World Cup	Ricky Ponting	Australia defeated Sri Lanka	By 53 runs
2009 Champions Trophy	Ricky Ponting	Australia defeated New Zealand	By 6 wickets
2015 ODI World Cup	Michael Clarke	Australia defeated New Zealand	By 7 wickets
2021 T20 World Cup	Aaron Finch	Australia defeated New Zealand	By 8 wickets
2023 World Test Championship	Pat Cummins	Australia defeated India	By 209 runs
2023 ODI World Cup	Pat Cummins	Australia defeated India	By 6 wickets

(ICC Tournaments won by Australia)

From the Australian team, Ricky Ponting is currently the most successful captain because of the 4 ICC Tournaments that the team won under him and the 1999-2007 period was the most dominant era of the Australian team. Coming to the recent wins, Pat Cummins has been the leader who managed to win the 2023 World Test Championship along with the ODI World Cup and registered his name in the list of the successful captains of the Australian team. In the future, the Australian team will be looking forward to adding more trophies to their cabinet now.

What makes Australia different in the ICC Tournaments?

With so much success and glory to their name, the Australian team always stands out in the public and has been in the news headlines because of the way they have played over the years, Aggression, Passion and with motive to win, this team has got all the skill and strength that allows them to take the top spot at the table. We will be listing down the points that have been with the Australian team which makes them one of the greatest teams on this planet.

1. High self-belief and intent

One of the biggest things that a team should have is high self-belief which makes them do well in the tournament. Every team present in the league has got the skill of picking up a bat and swinging the ball, but it takes confidence and self-belief to perform well on the ground which the Australian team always brings on the ground and hence it allows them to keep their spirits high. One such example was during the 2021 T20 World Cup in the Semi-Finals against Pakistan where they were chasing 177 runs and the team collapsed at 96-5 in the 13 overs.

(Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis celebrate after hitting the winning runs against Pakistan)

With just the last two batters on the crease, the target looked out of reach but Matthew Wade kept his calm and brought the situation to 18 runs required from 9 balls. With Shaheen Afridi bowling at this stage, the other teams might have taken the game down to the last ball but Matthew Wade had the self-belief and took on Pakistan’s best bowler here and smashed three consecutive sixes to seal the deal for the Australian team. With this much confidence, Australia has always conquered these types of situations which shows how good they are while handling the pressure.

2. Not relying on the senior players

In the last 10 years, India has failed to win a single ICC Tournament because of the way they have relied on their senior players to take them out of difficult situations. In the 2019 ODI World Cup, India relied on their two-star batters, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma to make runs for them at the top and hence India reached the Semi-Finals with their performance. However, when both of them failed to score in the Semi-Finals against New Zealand, the whole team bundled out and failed to chase a score of 240 which shows the team’s dependency on the big players.

(Travis Head played a knock of 137 runs in the 2023 ODI World Cup Finals against India)

While coming to the Australian team, they always go with the teamwork that makes sure that each individual has a role to play and hence when everyone performs, they manage to win a match. The same thing happened in the 2023 ODI World Cup Finals where the top players of the Australian team, David Warner and Steve Smith failed to make an impact on the match then it was Travis Head who came out well and helped the team to chase a total of 240 runs. With no big name performing well in the Finals, Australia still managed to win the ICC Tournament easily.

3. Making brave decisions in the big matches

In the game of cricket, the winning team has always got one thing special and that is how they make the brave decisions during the big matches of the tournaments. Coming to the Australian way, they are the ones who will always come out well because making the decisions on the field well helps them to get the results favouring them. Just like bowling first in the 2023 ODI World Cup Finals where it was a brave once because it could have backfired if the Indian team had got an amazing score at the board and hence it would have been tough to chase it.

(Rohit Sharma and Pat Cummins during the 2023 ODI World Cup Finals toss)

Furthermore, after winning the World Cup, Pat Cummins went on to explain that bowling first was always a 50-50 call as the pitch was slow and it was Australia’s best chance to make things work and catch that running Indian team behind. Eventually the same happened as India was able to post just 240 runs on the board and it was the Australian team who chased the target with 6 wickets in their bank which marked their 6th ODI World Cup trophy win while it was the second time that they had defeated India in the Finals of the 50 over the tournament.

4. Keeping the team first before any individual

In Australian culture, there is nothing as Star Worship which allows the fans and the management to keep the team above any individual. For the 2024 T20 World Cup, India have recalled Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma because of their top position in Indian cricket despite not giving chances to the young players out there. While the Australian team has dropped Steve Smith for the T20 World Cup 2024 knowing that he hasn’t done much in the format the young stars should take up the position to express themselves now.

(Mitchell Marsh in the 2021 T20 World Cup)

Furthermore, the same thing happened in the 2021 T20 World Cup where the Australian team was searching for someone destructive at the third position in their batting lineup as Steve Smith wasn’t able to pace his innings well. This is where they included Mitchell Marsh to bat at number 3 and he gave the perfect results by scoring a match-winning half-century in the Finals of the tournament against New Zealand and won them the T20 World Cup for the first time. Steve Smith batted at the number 4 position in the whole tournament and there was hardly any worrying sign between the players.

5. Analysing the opponents well

Coming to the big matches in the ICC Tournaments, Australia always comes up with different plans and makes sure that they stick to their brilliance while taking out the opponents well. In an interview with R Ashwin, David Warner came and said that they had formed an absolutely simple plan against India in the Finals of the World Cup where they were just bowling slower balls and were allowing the Indian team to hit the shots at the bigger side of the boundary to make it difficult for them to pick up the boundaries regularly and on an easy basis.

(Australian team during the Finals of the 2023 ODI World Cup against India)

Just like this, the Australian team also made their plans visible while batting in the Finals of the match. The plan was to take the doubles and singles after restricting the Indian team to a low score and hence it worked well for the team there and they eventually went on to win the ODI World Cup 2023 under the leadership of Pat Cummins. This all came out with the plan and hence the Australian team showed why they have got a wonderful team that allows them to come well at the big stages of the ICC tournaments.