Quantcast

Australia primed after T20I makeover

An overhauled team following a shift in selection panel will face its first test when the Aussies visit India for upcoming 20-over series

The recent announcement of Australia's T20 squad was the unofficial launch of their latest push to ascend to the top of the 20-over world for the very first time.

While the returns of James Faulkner and Nathan Coulter-Nile and the continued absence of injured spearhead Mitchell Starc were the major talking points when Australia named their squads for their upcoming tour of India last month, the team named for the T20I component signalled the start of a new era.

The squad was the first picked since the national selection panel was revamped earlier this year, which gave Mark Waugh and coach Darren Lehmann sole responsibility for picking the T20 side.

And the recall of 34-year-old allrounder Dan Christian - who hasn't played for Australia since April 2014 - and paceman Kane Richardson further underlines a new way of thinking in a crammed international schedule.

The selection panel was restructured 12 months after Australia's failed campaign at the 2016 ICC World T20, a tournament that remains an outlier as the only major international event the Aussies are yet to win.

And while Australia's historic under-performance in 20-over cricket can partly be put down to their early perceptions of the format as little more than hit-and-giggle, their recent record is cause for greater concern.

Australia have won just seven of 16 T20Is in the past two years, a 44 per cent win rate which, among the world's top-10 ranked teams, puts them ahead of only Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.


And after an under-strength side shorn of their Test stars lost their home series to Sri Lanka in February – their victory in the dead-rubber third match ended a five-game losing streak at home – the Aussies slipped to their current world ranking of sixth.

"I think it certainly makes sense to separate the T20 format of the game from the others," said selector Trevor Hohns, whose official remit now focuses on just Test and ODI cricket, when the panel was revamped in March.

"Because we are, in effect, trying to increase our performance in that format and also our ranking ... so it does make sense to have a little bit of a split panel in that area."

Australia's recent under-performance in 20-over cricket has come during a time of reasonable success in the other forms of the game; they've won 24 of 44 ODIs (win percentage of 54 per cent) and 11 of 22 Tests (50 per cent) during the past two years and their exit from the last World T20 came when the Aussies were the No.1 ranked side in both Test and ODI cricket.

Fleet-footed Warner an inspiration: Renshaw

And the growing success of the KFC Big Bash League and proliferation of Aussies in the Indian Premier League (there were 21 Australians in this year's IPL, three of which captained their franchise) makes their poor results internationally even harder to comprehend.

"Players are currently playing a lot of world-class T20 cricket in domestic competitions around the world," said CA's Executive General Manager of Team Performance Pat Howard before reviewing their failed World T20 campaign last year.

"We will review all aspects of our preparation and performance because we genuinely believed we had a team that could win."

With the next T20 World Cup to be held on home soil in 2020, the reconditioned approach to T20 cricket that Howard promised 18 months ago has seemingly arrived.

A revamped selection panel, a new-look team and an improved international schedule featuring a Trans-Tasman tri-series against New Zealand and England at the end of the Australian summer has created scope for optimism.

"There's obviously some fantastic players around the country who are great T20 players ... and unfortunately we just haven't got it together in the last couple of World Cups," Christian, a veteran of three failed World T20 campaigns, told cricket.com.au last week.

"Continuity can make it a bit difficult. It's not like one-dayers where they play 20-odd games a year; in T20s you might only play seven or eight games a year. And the scheduling (clashes) can make it difficult, too.

"Hopefully this is a step in the right direction and we can build and get some momentum leading into that next World Cup."

Australia in India 2017

Australia ODI squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Ashton Agar, Hilton Cartwright, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.

Australia T20 squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Jason Behrendorff, Dan Christian, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Patrick Cummins, Aaron Finch, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa.

India squad: TBC


Fixtures: TBC