The Aussies enter the match having lost both opening matches, going down by six wickets to hosts India before a 134 run loss to South Africa – their heaviest defeat at a World Cup.

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Despite boasting the batting firepower of David Warner and Steve Smith, the Aussies have yet to post a total of 200.

Sri Lanka remain winless despite posting impressive scores of 326 against South Africa and 344 against Pakistan.

The horror start to the World Cup has put both nations firmly against the wall with the Aussies needing to win six of their final seven games to have a chance at a semi-final berth.

8.20pm – 10 overs in the books

Sri Lanka are in cruise control after the opening power play with the openers building a solid foundation for the innings.

Australia will be left to rue what could have been after Glenn Maxwell emphatically appealed for LBW. His shouting fell on deaf ears as Pat Cummins elected to not review it having burnt one review on the first ball of the innings.

Replays rolled moments later showing Maxwell’s delivery was going on to hit leg stump and would have given the Aussies their first wicket.

8.05pm – Fans nowhere to be seen at World Cup

Stadiums around India have remained largely empty despite the best cricketers on the planet battling it out for ODI supremacy.

The embarrassing scenes have been highlighted by those watching on throughout the 2023 World Cup with even more piling in on Monday night.

In a must win clash for both Australia and Sri Lanka, the teams walked out onto the ground with empty seats as far as the eye could see.

AAP’s Oliver Caffrey wrote: “Marsh Cup sort of crowd for toda’s match.”

One user on X wrote: “Where’s the crowd at Lucknow? It’s worse than a North Melbourne AFL crowd at Blundstone Arena in Hobart.”

Another sarcastically posted: “Another massive crowd for #CWC23.”

A third wrote: “Ekana stadium Lucknow is a flop show. @BCCI don’t even know to setup proper prize at different stadiums. Over priced tickets has layed to a quite crowd at Lucknow.”

7.30pm – Opening over carnage

In what is being touted as a do-or-die contest, the Aussies got off to the worst possible start.

Mitchell Starc’s first ball of the innings swung back across the stumps and appeared to hit opener Pathem Nissanka on the pads. The Aussie quick was certain the ball had hit the pads first and urged his skipper to send the decision upstairs.

Unfortunately as replays rolled it not only showed the ball would have missed leg stump, Nissanka had got bat onto the ball first. One ball down, one review lost.

Several balls later Starc stopped after reaching the crease as he issued a warning to Kusal Perera for leaving his crease early.

“After the first ball Starc had a little word with the umpire, Kusal Perera just leaving his crease… he was saying to Kusal Perera ‘don’t leave your crease’,” Nasser Hussain said.

“That’s fair enough, he’s told the umpire now he’s told the batter, stay in your crease at that end… a very eventful first over.”

7.05pm – Sri Lanka win the toss and elect to bat

The Aussies have suffered their first loss on the night with Pat Cummins losing the coin toss on a wicket predicted to suit the first team far better.

Despite the rumour mill going into overdrive on Monday, Cummins took his place alongside his teammates for the crucial showdown.

Australia: David Warner, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoins, Mitch Starc, Pat Cummins (c), Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera, Kusal Mendis (c, wk), Sadeera Samarawickrama, Charith Asalanka, Dhananjaya de Silva, Chamika Karunaratne, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara, Dilshan Madushanka

6.50pm – Bombshell rumour hangs over skipper’s head

Australia mean business in their attempts to resurrect their diabolical World Cup start and it went next level on Monday when a bombshell rumour was floated by former Aussie skipper Michael Clarke.

Clarke shared what he had heard on Monday morning when he stated current captain Pat Cummins would be dropped for the game against Sri Lanka.

“I heard last night that Pat Cummins is not going to be selected for this game,” Clarke said on Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.

“We’ve dropped our wicketkeeper… who is one of the most important people in your squad. So he got one game and got dropped. Now there’s talk we’re going to drop our captain.

“If Alex Carey is only given one game, he shouldn’t be in India. They shouldn’t have taken him. If Pat Cummins is going to get dropped and not captain the team, then you guys have selected the wrong captain.”

Clarke also took aim at Australia earlier in the week for its “horrible” preparation in the lead-up to the World Cup, something he doubled down on ahead of the game against South Africa.

“I heard the players say our preparation was perfect. No, no — you had enough games of cricket but you didn’t use those games,” Clarke said.

“You didn’t pick your best players. You didn’t work out are we going to bat first, bowl first. You didn’t work out who’s playing where, you didn’t even pick your captain to let him captain some games of cricket. So come World Cup semi-final [or] grand final he knows exactly what he’s doing under pressure.

“Pat Cummins doesn’t captain enough games. He’s in India able to play but they rested him for a game.”