Adam Zampa took 4 for 21 in a World Cup match, but thinks he'd "probably be feeling exactly the same if I'd got none-for tonight."
"It's feeling pretty hollow, to be honest," Zampa said after Australia's nine-wicket win against Oman. "You'd prefer to have the wickets than not, but it's probably the worst-feeling four-for I've ever got.
"To be sitting here right now, knowing that I'm flying home tomorrow - I didn't envision this, that's for sure. So it's a flat feeling."
Immediately after Australia's defeat at Sri Lanka's hands on Monday, captain Mitchell Marsh had said his team felt "devastated" and "shattered" that they had lost two in a row in the group stage. Four nights later, and despite a big win against Oman, Zampa was seeing mainly the broader failure. "We should dominate these games and we did tonight so there's that."
Such are the standards that Australian cricket sets that Zampa - who was a key part of the victorious 2023 ODI-World-Cup-winning side - that he placed this campaign in a trio of broader Australia failures in T20 World Cups. Australia had been champions in the UAE in 2021, but had narrowly missed a semi-finals spot in 2022, when they were tournament hosts. They'd also missed out on a semi-finals spot in 2024, when they lost two of their three Super Eights matches.
"I guess we're renowned for being good tournament player[s and] teams, but I think since we won in 2021 we kind of get through the World Cup really disappointed. In 2022 and 2024 - particularly those two teams I think we probably should have given it a nudge and got close to winning it. You never know what happens in the end of these tournaments. The two teams we had in the last two World Cups in particular, I think really disappointing results.
"I think the last three days for me [have been about] reflecting on how the last three World Cups have gone, given what we had achieved in between the World Cups. I think we've been number two and number three in the world generally, behind India. We always give India a run for their money when we play them in bilateral series. Sometimes they beat us, sometimes we beat them, so we're a good team. But then results like this - it's just hard to fathom."
There have been some suggestions following their back-to-back losses to Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka that Australia care less about T20 World Cups than the Ashes, which they retained with a 4-1 victory over the 2025-26 summer. But Zampa, who only plays white-ball cricket for the national side, felt Australia arguably put "even more" effort into their white-ball cricket than their Test team. On Thursday, coach Andrew McDonald had also said their early exit was not down to complacency.
"The time that the coaches and the staff put into how we're going to play our T20 cricket and who's going to play each role and what our preparation is - I think they'd probably put as much time into that as they would Test cricket," said Zampa. "I don't know, but potentially even more time, because in T20 cricket and one-day cricket, everyone's a lot tighter in the world, whereas Test cricket, Australia and the top two or three teams are quite dominant, so I don't think the work is needed as much.
"I think the Australian public struggle with the fact that they don't get to see much of the white-ball cricket we play. We play like three to six games at home in the summer. We do a lot of our work away from Australian time, so they don't get to see the way we play and have prepared for these World Cups."