Allan Border: Australia need James Faulkner to stay fit

Australia showed on Sunday just why they are one of the favourites for the World Cup, even though the boys got themselves into a little bit of strife early on.

There was some reasonable bowling from James Anderson first up and they were teetering a little bit in the first 10 overs. But that just shows the depth of the team at the moment. They bat so deep that they can keep applying pressure on the opposition bowling right down to numbers eight, nine and even 10.

And, when you have players like James Faulkner coming in at No. 8 and making 50 off 24 balls, that just shows the strength of the side. There is a bit of concern over Faulkner, who seems to be suffering from some soreness in his side. It would be a blow to Australia if he were to miss the World Cup. He’s a great finisher, a handy bowler and a vital cog in Australia’s World Cup machine, so I’m hoping it’s not too serious.

England have shown they are a very good side. But they throw in some so-so performances from time to time and that’s a worry. From their point of view, it’s good that they made the tri-series final, though some games were lost early in the tournament.

On their day, they can be a very dangerous side, it’s just that they have a few vulnerable areas with their batting and late-innings bowling. Those are things that can be worked on. Eoin Morgan, though he was out first-ball on Sunday, is a key man for them, so is Joe Root and Moeen Ali at the top.

India, the third team in this tri-series, are a quality team. They’ve just struggled in certain conditions in Australia. I’m a little surprised because they seem to be doing everything right as far as their preparation is concerned.

But it won’t take much to turn things around — there just has to be a little bit of a heart-to-heart session where they get things off their chest, have a chat about what they doing right and wrong. They have to ensure they just don’t talk the talk — they’ve got to walk the walk. I feel that with the right amount of soul-searching they will be able to do just that.

There are a few questions marks over the injury situations of Ishant Sharma and Rohit Sharma, which they need to get sorted out quickly. MS Dhoni also needs to really lay down the law, especially with the batting group. The bowlers are doing a reasonable job but the batting, which is seen as India’s strength, is just not performing to the level one expects. Dhoni needs to really read the riot act to a lot of those guys.

I believe India can do well in the World Cup — they just need to address that that top-order batting and a few other issues.

— Gameplan