McDonald Says Australia Were Completely Locked in for T20 World Cup 2026

Australian head coach Andrew McDonald has dismissed the notion that his team was not fully prepared for the ICC T20 World Cup 2026. He said the team had prioritized this event well in advance, but unfortunately, they were unable to perform in the last few matches according to the expectations of the fans.

"We've been fully locked into this World Cup for a period of time, this is one of our priorities. I have heard that sort of narrative that T20 World Cups don't matter to us. I think all that is a response to the performances of Australian cricket teams in these competitions.” said Andrew McDonald while talking to the reporters.

He acknowledged that people were rightfully expecting them to perform well, as they haven’t won any T20 World Cup after the 2021 mega event. Unfortunately, the results didn’t go their way, but it doesn’t mean that they are not serious about the mega event.

“I think we won the one in 2021 and we haven't been as successful since that point in time and the expectations on the Australian cricket team are high and rightfully so. But to sit back and say that we're prioritising other formats or other versions of the game and not the T20 World Cup is entirely false." said Andrew McDonald.

He then said that the current group of players are all quality cricketers, but unfortunately, most of them have gone out of form at once. This is the key reason why Australia did not produce any match-winning performances despite having so much talent in the squad.

"Really the tale of the tape is that we've had a lot of players not performing at once, which for this group has been rare. You think back across the journey, and we've always had two key contributors with the bat, and that has given us the totals.” concluded Andrew McDonald.