‘Mate, let’s just have a f***ing go. Who cares if you do your back’: How Marcus Stoinis’ words revived Adam Zampa and Australia’s World Cup

Adam Zampa had conceded a total of 123 runs from 18 overs of bowling and nabbed just the one wicket from his first two outings at the 2023 ODI World Cup, This, being entrusted as the only full-time spinner at a subcontinent World Cup.

His record in India prior to the marquee tournament had been mighty impressive. Infact, he’d helped Australia beat India in a three-match ODI series only earlier this year. The opening two World Cup games in October suggested anything but. A neck injury and shoulder issues from the recent past didn’t help. Infact, Zampa had to wrestle a back spasm before taking the field against Sri Lanka in Australia’s third match. The leggie has since turned the tide with 15 scalps. What changed? A dialogue with his best mate in the Australian team.

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“Stoin was the best. He came up to me and could see I was in pain, and I think he had a bit of a niggle and he was like ‘mate, let’s just have a crack hey, let’s just have a f—ing go. Who cares if you do your back even worse and I do my hamstring, rip it off the bone, we’re going to go home f***ing losers anyway if we don’t have a crack, so let’s go’,” Zampa told The Grade Cricketer podcast of an exchange with Stoinis ahead of the match against Sri Lanka.

“That was probably my turning point, I was like, ‘yeah let’s just have a crack, let’s go’.”

Australia have since marched on to four wins on a trot and are fourth in the points table as of Tuesday with wins against Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the Netherlands, and New Zealand.

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“We just told ourselves to stay in the competition because we knew we were in a compromising position if this game gets away from us, then, 3-0 with six games left is not great. So we just stayed in it, and we know with a team like Sri Lanka if you get on top of them, the game can change really easily. So there wasn’t really panic stations or anger, it was just ‘we need to try and stay in the contest’,” Zampa elaborates on the dressing room chatter.

The five-time world champions play arch-rivals England in their next league stage game on Saturday at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.