Source : ABC NEWS
After a wretched warm-up and the longest wait of any team to launch their bid, captain Mitch Marsh is adamant Australia’s new-look, inexperienced side is ready to make a convincing bid to regain the T20 World Cup.
On the eve of his side’s long-awaited introduction to the tournament in Sri Lanka, Marsh found himself interrogated during his news conference in Colombo about Australia’s warm-up capitulation to Pakistan, their recent injury woes and the greenish look to their attack.
He also revealed Tim David, one of the most destructive T20 batters in the world, would miss Australia’s opener against Ireland as he recovered from a recent hamstring problem.
But when also asked about his own personal hopes, he would only offer the bullish response: “My target is a World Cup trophy. That’s all it is.”
The 34-year-old skipper has continued to be upbeat in the teeth of a problematic build-up, with injuries robbing him of Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins and his side getting crushed 3-0 in Pakistan, culminating in its worst-ever T20 defeat in Lahore.
But five years since Australia’s men’s team lifted its only global T20 crown, he has “great confidence” in the mix of new faces and old hands to deliver in Sri Lanka and India.
Not giving too much away about the line-up for the opener at Colombo’s R Premadasa Stadium, Marsh did admit David would not play but added: “We’ll certainly see him come back into contention over the next few games.”
Seamer Nathan Ellis will be available to lead the attack, even though he has not played a match since suffering a hamstring strain when bowling for Hobart in the BBL.
His fellow pacers are Ben Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett, making it a very different proposition for an Australian side long used to having at least one of the “big three”, Hazlewood, Cummins and Mitch Starc, to call on.
Destructive batter Tim David is still recovering from a hamstring strain. (Getty Images: Sameera Peiris/ICC)
But Marsh insisted: “Over the last 12 months, guys like Benny Dwarshuis and Xavier Bartlett have played pretty much all of our games.
“So we’ve got great confidence they’ve been able to do a role for us, and they’ve excelled in some games. So we’re confident with the group we’ve got here.”
Spin-friendly conditions look likely to mean both Adam Zampa and the rather less experienced Matt Kuhnemann will get a start.
“It’s not something that traditionally happens but we’ve played with two spinners over the last probably 12 months a few times, and we’ve seen Matt certainly belongs at this level,” Marsh said.
“We’ve built a squad of maybe 18 to 20 people who’ve played over the last 12 months and we’ve got game time to all of them.
“Whilst some of them haven’t played a lot for Australia, they’ve played a lot of cricket and we’ve got great confidence that they’re going to be able to do the job for us.”
He has been able to watch a series of low-scoring encounters while the team has had to wait patiently to start the event, and was asked about whether what he had seen might prompt a more conservative approach.
“We certainly want to be positive in the way we go about things … the word adaptability has been thrown around in our team meetings so far, just adapting to whatever situation is put in front of us and get the job done,” he said.
“We do have a lot of power in our unit, but we’ve also got a lot of skill and a lot of experience from one to seven.
“So I think it’s just play what’s in front of us, adapt to the conditions, communicate really well, and whatever’s thrown at us, just jump at the opportunity and have a crack.
“We were outplayed by Pakistan, but we’ve left it there, and we’re ready to move on.”
AAP
