"Captain can't always win the game" - Brett Lee provides support to Mitchell Marsh despite T20 World Cup failure

Former cricketer Brett Lee refrained from commenting on the change in leadership within the Australian team after a lackluster performance in the T20 World Cup 2024. Brett Lee expressed support for Mitchell Marsh as the team's captain, adding that leadership alone cannot always win the match.

Pat Cummins led the Australia team to victories in the finals of the World Test Championship (WTC) and ODI World Cup 2023 as captain. However, the selectors backed Mitchell Marsh as captain for the T20 World Cup 2024. Notably, Marsh didn't have enough experience as a leader in international cricket.

The Mitchell Marsh-led side started the recent ICC tournament as one of the favorites to secure the title. The Australian team kicked off their campaign with four consecutive victories in the group stage. They beat Bangladesh in the first game in the Super 8s but lost to Afghanistan and India in their next matches.

Very Hard For Me To Make A Comment - Brett Lee

In a conversation with CricTracker, Brett Lee wondered whether Pat Cummins declined the T20 World Cup captaincy or if selectors chose Mitchell Marsh to lead the team. Lee emphasized that it would be challenging to speculate without having access to the team's inner circle.

“It's very hard for me to make a comment on that because I'm not around that inner sanctum. I don't understand whether it was the call that Pat Cummings didn't want to captain the T20 World Cup. I don't know whether they wanted to go down a different road and maybe blood another younger guy in to Mitchell Marsh and maybe take the workload off Pat Cummins, it's very hard to speculate,” Lee told CricTracker.

Mitchell Marsh had struggled to score runs in the ICC tournament. Marsh scored 125 runs in seven matches at an average of 20.83 and a strike rate of 116.82, with a best score of 37. Pat Cummins, on the other hand, achieved back-to-back hat-tricks in the tournament in the West Indies and the USA.

Don't Know Anything Else - Brett Lee

Brett Lee acknowledged the challenges of captaincy, especially leading in all formats. Lee backed Pat Cummins' decision to potentially step back from the captaincy. He emphasized the importance of fully supporting the captain's decisions and efforts.

“But all I know is that when you do pick a captain, you have to back the captain 100%. He's out there trying his hardest. The captain can't always win the game. And I think that when you have had the success as Pat Cummins has had, though, he's done a great job as captain and as leader. Maybe he wanted a break. But as I said, that's just purely speculation. I don't know anything else,” Lee added.

Brett Lee is currently leading the Australia Champions team in the World Championship of Legends 2024. Australia recently secured a spot in the semi-finals by defeating India Champions. Seasoned players like Shaun Marsh, Aaron Finch, and Nathan Coulter-Nile are part of the Australia Champions team.

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