It was no coincidence the leg-spinner's absence coincided with Australia's first ODI defeat since the early stages of last year's World Cup
End of 'incredible run' highlights importance of Zampa
Australia's remarkable ODI win streak came to an end in soggy northern England overnight and if there's one thing their first defeat in 15 matches highlighted, it was the importance of Adam Zampa.
Throughout their 14-game unbeaten run – the second longest in men's ODIs behind the 21 Ricky Ponting's team managed in 2003 – only two players featured in every game: Zampa and Marnus Labuschagne.
Australia were always going to be up against it in Durham on Tuesday with their star leg-spinner a late out due to illness and without another specialist spinner in the 16-player squad.
But as the game unfolded, and England's Harry Brook and Will Jacks built a match-winning third-wicket partnership of 156, Zampa's absence was keenly felt.
The 32-year-old is by some stretch Australia's leading wicket-taker over their past 15 matches with 30 victims.
Twenty-one of those wickets have come in the middle overs (11-40) and has consistently been the bowler summoned by captains Pat Cummins and Mitch Marsh to get a breakthrough.
At Chester-le-Street's Riverside Ground on Tuesday, Brook and Jacks went after spinners Glenn Maxwell and Matt Short, hitting them out the attack and forcing Marsh to bring back star quicks Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood earlier than he would have liked.
They then went after Starc, hitting him for a 19-run over – his third most expensive six-ball set in his ODI career – as the England batters cashed in on batting conditions that became more favourable.
So often across the 14 games prior, Zampa had been the one to break the partnership, going wicketless in just one of those matches.
Zampa was the fifth Australian to miss a match this tour as a virus sweeps through the squad, with Starc, Hazlewood and Maxwell sitting out the ODI series opener in Nottingham last week and Marsh the second T20.
"It's always a different team when Adam Zampa's not there, (he's been) an incredible performer for us over a long period of time," head coach Andrew McDonald said post-match.
"It was a late decision to leave him out, clearly we've had a little bit of illness in the camp so unfortunately he was the latest casualty.
"It's always difficult when you have them moving on you late but the resilience of the group and the way they've performed in the first three matches would say that (the illness) hasn’t been a distraction."
McDonald revealed the winning streak wasn't something they spoke about as a group, but said it was an "incredible run" especially with new players coming into the team over that period.
Across the 14 wins, Australia have introduced Aaron Hardie, Matt Short, Josh Inglis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Xavier Bartlett and Will Sutherland into the team.
While they've never needed a full-scale reset like their opponents England are openly going through now, McDonald still sees his team evolving.
"We've got the Champions Trophy where we'll be pretty settled in terms of the players that we're looking at for that," he said.
"But there's no doubt you start to forecast for 2027 (ODI World Cup) and some of the players that we're blooding at the moment, we'd like to see them potentially in that transition and become key members of the Australian cricket team.
"And at the moment they're putting their best foot forward."
Allrounders Hardie and Green are two of those players, with fine all-round performances in Durham highlighting their value.
Green helped lay the platform for Australia's 7-304 with 42 in an 84-run partnership with Steve Smith, before Hardie blazed three fours and two sixes in a quickfire 26-ball 44 from No.8 to help the visitors take 104 runs from the final 10 overs.
Then, like Hardie had done in the previous match at Headingley, Green took two crucial wickets and was the bowler that broke the Brook and Jacks stand.
"We saw today Aaron Hardie called into the team late, some critical death hitting there to get us up to a total which I thought was a fantastic effort as a batting unit," McDonald said.
"That work that was done early allowed Alex Carey and Hardie to finish off at the back end … (and) he was definitely impressive.
"The conditions clearly changed across the course of the day and we were up against it early but to manufacture that type of total, there's some real positives (despite the loss)."
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Australia T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood (England games only), Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Riley Meredith, Matt Short (England games only), Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
September 4: Australia beat Scotland by seven wickets
September 6: Australia beat Scotland by 70 runs
September 7: Australia beat Scotland by six wickets
September 11: Australia beat England by 28 runs
September 13: England beat Australia by three wickets
September 15: Match abandoned
Australia ODI squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Short, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa. Reserve: Mahli Beardman
September 19: Australia beat England by seven wickets
September 21: Australia beat England by 68 runs
September 24: England beat Australia by 46 runs (DLS method)
September 27: Fourth ODI v England, Lord's, London, 9.30pm AEST
September 29: Fifth ODI v England, County Ground, Bristol, 8pm AEST