'Aggressive' Stanlake gets results

Australia’s drought breaking nine-wicket victory over Pakistan in Harare came down to one simple mantra for Billy Stanlake: get angry.

After Australia’s limited-overs whitewash at the hands of England last month, Stanlake was told by teammates and coaching staff to get aggressive, and it paid massive dividends for him in his side’s opening T20 match.

He claimed the second best T20I figures of all time by an Australian man, while his 4-8 was the most economical four-over spell produced for Australia in men's T20s.

"The boys have been getting in to me over the last few days about being a bit more aggressive,” Stanlake said post-match.

"So I tried to come out and do that. It’s just nice to get off to a good start and get a couple of early wickets.”

Stanlake demolished the top order with pace and bounce, something that went away from his game in his most recent outing in Birmingham against England.

"I went away from (being aggressive) a little bit. I know Justin (Langer) was getting in to me at training the other day to be more aggressive to our boys in the nets.”

"He kept reinforcing that, so I wanted to put an emphasis on that today."

After a spate of recent injuries to his finger and toe, Stanlake was at his best against the World No.1 Pakistan side and now he hopes to back that up tomorrow against Zimbabwe.

"I think the challenge for me has been to do that game after game," he said.

"I’m feeling really good at the moment; the body is feeling good and I’ll be getting ready to go for tomorrow."

Qantas Tour of Zimbabwe

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth

Pakistan squad: Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Asif Ali, Hussain Talat, Haris Sohail, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Amir, Usman Khan Shinwari, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Sahibzada Farhan.

Zimbabwe squad: Hamilton Masakadza (c), Cephas Zhuwao, Chamu Chibhabha, Brian Chari, Tarisai Musakanda, Malcolm Waller, PJ Moor, Tendai Chisoro, Kyle Jarvis, Brandon Mavuta, Blessing Muzarabani, Chris Mpofu, Ryan Burl, Solomon Mire, Wellington Masakadza, Elton Chigumbura, Ryan Murray

July 1: Pakistan beat Zimbabwe by 74 runs

July 2: Australia beat Pakistan by 9 wickets

July 3: Australia vs Zimbabwe

July 4: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan

July 5: Pakistan vs Australia

July 6: Australia vs Zimbabwe

July 8: Final