"Cometh the hour, cometh the champions."
When it comes to rising from wreckage, Australians are the absolute masters. They are often described as bent on winning, no matter the cost. This attitude makes them look arrogant and even cheats at times but their never-say-die spirit puts them apart from the rest of the world.
Going back to the 80s when the Australian cricket was in some disarray, a gentleman called Allan Border took charge and Australia has never looked back since then. If you look at the way they have played through the last two decades, you feel that they are butchers. They don't just beat the opposition, they choke them and humiliate them until their opposition surrenders. They have been led by inspirational captains like Allan Border, Mark Taylor, Ricky Ponting, and Michael Clarke. They always led by example and taught their players to play hard and give their 100%
Australian cricket has not produced just cricketers, it has produced fighters. Imagine if Steve Waugh had not fought a lost battle against India at Sydney in 2004, India perhaps would have won their first test series in Australia.
When it comes to the belief that "we can win", no one had it more than the great Shane Warne. The 1996 World Cup semi-final against the West Indies was lost long ago. Shane Warne though had other ideas. He spun the match in the favour of the Aussies and they went on to win from nowhere. He did something similar in the Ashes 2006. The Australian players themselves resigned to the fact they could not win that test match. But Warne said a few magical words in the dressing room when turned the tide in Australian's favour. Glenn Mcgrath was also a similar character. He would predict a complete whitewash for the opposition before the start of every series and then he would lead by example.
Another thing that has been unique to Australia is their tough mental character. They believe they can't lose. In fact, they find winning ways from precarious situations. They are not overawed by the situations and they back their skills. This the reason why their big players stand up at critical phases of the game. This is how you win World Cups and they have as many as five of them. Clearly, they are the world-beaters.
If we would make an all-time XI for the last two or three decades, we can pick almost all the eleven players from Australia. They produced innumerable match-winners, so many of whom are regarded as legends of the game. Having so many quality players as they had over the years would make the perfect case for them to dominate world cricket for so long.
They would study the opposition and exploit its weaknesses. However, they always played on their strengths and not on others' weaknesses. Such confidence comes through repeated performances which always reflected in their body language. Once they got hold of the opposition, they would torment them and literally embarrass them. No matter how good the Australians are off the field, they have always been far from amiable on the field. They would sledge their opponents in such a manner that it would cause a lapse in their concentration. They often said controversial things just before the start of a series to pump their rivals up. Mcgrath said he would torment Brian Lara in the 1999 World Cup though that was a must-win game for the Aussies. However, he kept his word, and Australians went on to win the World Cup.
Crossing limits to win a game was going to haunt them at some stage and it did happen in 2018 ball-tampering saga in South Africa post which the team in yellow was a mere shadow of the Australians that we knew. Their win percentage in 2018 was worst among all test-playing nations. That was a rare sight. The team played with much less confidence that we could never imagine. They lost an ODI series against South Africa and a test series to India, both at home. Although only two-three players were missing, it seemed as if the entire team was broken. Mark Taylor resigned from the post of Director of Cricket Australia; James Sutherland resigned from the post of the CEO of Cricket Australia and Darren Lehmann gave up his head-coach position. Everybody seemed to be going wrong for the Australians.
However, it was only a matter of time before they would recover. The likes of West Indies have never been able to repeat past glories. Sri Lanka too has been in disarray for quite some time now. Australia, though, was not going to be in turmoil for too long. They bounced back with two series wins against India and Pakistan and they seemed to be the team to beat in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. They have their key players back along with their beliefs. They have the momentum as well as form. Since then, they have retained the Ashes on English soil for the first time since 2001, they have hammered Pakistan, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka at home. They are currently the number one test team and the T20I team in the world. The way they rose to the top from such a low position was indicative of their character, toughness, and skill.
So, that's what champion sides do, they raise their game when it matters. Australia does this better than the rest.
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