Australia’s recipe for World Twenty20 success
Australia still have two matches to play if they are to complete the set of ICC trophies at the World Twenty20 this year, but their performances so far have installed them as firm favourites to win the competition in the Caribbean.
It’s a vast improvement on Australia’s inglorious group-stage exit at last year’s World Twenty20 in England, where Ricky Ponting’s side could be forgiven if the forthcoming Ashes series was taking up more of their planning. But when they returned from England empty-handed on both counts it was clear something had to be done.
The first change was to be delivered courtesy of Ponting’s post-Ashes decision to retire from the shortest form of the game to prolong his career in Test cricket. Australia subsequently and predictably installed Michael Clarke as Twenty20 captain, the heir apparent taking his first steps towards the ODI and Test captaincies sometime in the future.
Is Clarke a Twenty20 player? The jury might still be out on whether Pup’s more classic batting style is suited to the improvisation and power-hitting that this brand of the game seems to demand, but on what we’ve seen so far in the Caribbean, the side has flourished under his captaincy.
Since June 2009, Australia’s selectors have zeroed in on players they view as Twenty20 specialists and their bowling line-up is almost unrecognisable from the one they took to England last year. Nathan Bracken, Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle and Brett Lee (who was selected in the squad but was a late withdrawal as his horror injury run continues) haven’t played a part in a new look and potent pace attack.
Mitchell Johnson remains, but it’s the lightning pace of Shaun Tait and the addition of Dirk Nannes, who utilised his Dutch passport to play in last year’s World Twenty20, that have spearheaded the Australian attack.
Nathan Hauritz has travelled to the Caribbean with the Australian squad, but so far it’s been more of a holiday for the 28-year-old, as young leg-spinner Steven Smith has cemented his spot in the side.
Of course, Australia has recognised the value of Twenty20 specialists for a while now. Big-hitting opener David Warner has been a Twenty20 regular, but he’s struggled to hold down a regular place in even the New South Wales side in the longer forms of the game.
Andrew Symonds, selected for the World Twenty20 in England but sent home before the series began for yet another alcohol-related misdemeanour, is now a fading memory for the Australian squad, who can now call on the experience of Victorian captain Cameron White to save an innings in the middle order.
Wicketkeeper Brad Haddin, in-form opener Shane Watson, David and Michael Hussey join Clarke and Johnson as the remaining members of the 2009 World Twenty20 squad who have travelled to the Carribean.
It’s an overhaul that five dominant performances prove couldn’t have worked any better for Australia, but the two most vital victories are yet to come.
The green and gold have been the powerhouse of ODI cricket for more than a decade, winning the last three World Cups (in 1999, 2003 and 2007), as well as emerging victorious from the two most recent Champions Trophy campaigns, in 2006 and 2009.
Australia has, so far at least, failed to match their One-Day International prowess in the Twenty20 format, but that could all be about to change in the Caribbean.
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