Aussies out to rewrite World Cup history in T20 defence

Home-ground advantage looms as a genuine factor in the T20 World Cup, with data showing no team benefits more from acting as hosts than Australia.

Australia will start their T20 World Cup defence as favourites, with a crucial opener against New Zealand at the SCG tonight.

Recent history dictates that home ground advantage is of significant benefit in the 50-over game, with the past three ODI World Cups all won by the hosts.

However, of the seven global Twenty20 tournaments played to date, none has been won by the hosts.

If any team is positioned to break that streak, it is Australia.

That's because they go from winning 49 per cent of T20s on foreign soil to enjoying a 63 per cent success rate when they play at home.

Of all teams in the Super 12 stage of the World Cup, no other side has such a large jump to a winning percentage at home.

Australia's bouncier pitches are no doubt part of that, with Aaron Finch's team also having the advantage of playing their Test pace attack this tournament.

Knowing the grounds is also another key factor, with clear discrepancies between venues in Australia.

"There's a lot of different ways you can play cricket in Australia and that's the beauty of it," Finch said.

"You get such varied conditions from the east to the west, even north in Brisbane to the south in Melbourne and Hobart.

"There's so many variables that the team that wins the competition will be a really well-rounded one, a team that can adapt to changing conditions."

Another key factor is the size of the larger grounds, with Adam Zampa stating this week he had the advantage of knowing where he wanted batters to try and hit him at each venue.

The size of grounds has already played some part in the qualifying stage of the tournament, with potentially more importance on batters keeping the scoreboard ticking over rather than consistently taking on fielders in the deep.

"There are places where all game styles will be effective," Finch said.

"There are some guys who are serious power hitters who don't take any boundary size into consideration because if they middle it, it's going over anyway.

"It's probably the guys in the middle order who are playing in places like England, the subcontinent where they're small and fast, that they can get away to a flyer with boundaries early in your innings (as opposed to on most Australian grounds). 

"That's what makes T20 a great game - there's so much strategy but the fundamentals are still there."

Australia will travel nearly 10,000km as the crow flies in the Super 12 stage, with matches in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide, before a potential semi-final in Sydney and final in Melbourne.

Men's T20 World Cup 2022

Australia squad: Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Aaron Finch (c), Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa

Australia's T20 World Cup 2022 fixtures

Oct 22: v New Zealand, SCG, 6pm AEDT

Oct 25: v Sri Lanka, Optus Stadium, 10pm AEDT

Oct 28: v England, MCG, 7pm AEDT

Oct 31: v Ireland, Gabba, 7pm AEDT

Nov 4: v Afghanistan, Adelaide Oval, 7pm AEDT

Click here for a full 2022 T20 World Cup fixture