Australia crashed out of the tournament with a game remaining in the group stage – against Oman on Friday – after heavy defeats to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. While the team had dominated in bilateral cricket for much of 2025, they came into the World Cup having lost five straight matches to India and Pakistan and with a squad hit by injury problems.Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood did not make it to Sri Lanka, leaving the bowling attack lacking strike power, with Mitchell Starc having also retired from the format last year. Tim David was managed through the early stages after a hamstring injury, which left him without any cricket since Boxing Day until he played Zimbabwe. There were form concerns, too, most significantly around Maxwell and Cooper Connolly, while scrutiny has grown around Cameron Green.
“It’s been a really poor campaign, it has to be said,” Ponting told the ICC Review. “They had some injury concerns at the start with Hazlewood and Cummins being ruled out and then Tim David not available right at the start as well. But I think just losing to Zimbabwe like they did, that’s going to be the game that they’re going to think back and think like that’s our World Cup gone, there and then.
“You look at that Australian team on paper, it just doesn’t look to have that sort of aura around it that a lot of other Australian teams have going into ICC events and World Cups,” Ponting added. “You need to have your best players and your most experienced players standing up and winning big moments for you in these tournaments if you want to go ahead and win, and Australia haven’t had that.
“They probably haven’t got enough out of their top order batting with Cameron Green at No. 3, and then Tim David coming in at No. 4 for the last couple of games. They went off to a great start the other night [against Sri Lanka] and then to lose six for 20… taking no momentum at all into the second part of the game.”
On what the future looks like for the side, as they begin another two-year cycle towards 2028, which includes the Olympics and the next T20 World Cup that Australia will co-host with New Zealand, Ponting did not draw a line through too many players. However, he does not see Maxwell featuring again and thinks Steven Smith’s chances in the format remain up in the air after he was called into the squad following Mitchell Marsh’s injury and latterly added as Hazlewood’s replacement.
“Glenn Maxwell, I don’t think will be there,” he said. “I think it looks to me like his career is coming towards an end. Marcus Stoinis would also probably be a question mark, but he’s predominantly playing only T20 cricket tournaments around the world these days. Doesn’t play a lot of state cricket and obviously plays the BBL, so with his all-round ability, he might be there.
“Steve Smith has been very vocal about him wanting to be a part of an Olympic team as well. Whether or not that happens is a different story.”
