IPL brings Australia’s woes into focus
As cricket’s most lucrative Twenty20 tournament kicked off for another season, Cricket Australia has launched a review into why it continues to get it wrong in the shortest form of the game.
The Indian Premier League started overnight (NZ time) with Black Caps Corey Anderson, Tim Southee and Mitchell McClenaghan in action for defending champions Mumbai Indians against the Stephen Fleming-coached Rising Pune Supergiants.
They are joined by five other Black Caps in the eight-team competition, including recently retired Brendon McCullum, as they attempt build on their impressive form at the World Twenty20.
But while the Black Caps were one of the stories of the tournament as they spun their way into the semi-finals before falling to eventual runners-up England, Australia find themselves having to play catch-up in the short format.
Australia, the world’s leading test and one-day nation, failed to progress from the group stage for the second time in a row despite boasting some of the best Twenty20 players in the world.
The Aussies are sixth in the ICC’s T20 rankings and have never won the World T20, their best effort being runners-up in 2012.
The team that bowed out early in India had some of the most sought-after players in the Indian Premier League in David Warner, Shane Watson and James Faulkner.
Retired all-rounder Watson said earlier this year the T20 side suffered from a lack of continuity but understood the need to rest star players. But with Australia to host the next World T20, in 2020, the pressure will be on for an improved showing on home soil.
‘‘We will review all aspects of our preparation and performance because we genuinely believed we had a team that could win,’’ CA’s head of cricket Pat Howard said.
‘‘The World T20 in Australia in four years’ time will be in different conditions and . . . our preparation for that tournament will be progressed over the next two years, as it was for the World Cup in 2015.’’
However, former Australia wicketkeeper Brad Haddin does not believe the country needs to change its approach to Twenty20 and is particularly against adding more games to the calendar.
Australia played only one T20 last year but were given two threematch series leading into the recent event in India. The importance of lead-up matches could be overstated judging by results from this year’s World T20.
Finalists West Indies and England played the fewest matches of all Test nations since the previous World T20 in Bangladesh. The Windies had not played a T20 since November, while New Zealand, who played two warm-up matches in India, chose a training camp in Dubai instead of games.
‘‘I think we’ve got it right,’’ Haddin said of Australia’s priorities. ‘‘Look at how successful the Big Bash has been. We’re doing some really good things in T20, we’ve got some of the best T20 players in the IPL.
‘‘At the moment we haven’t quite clicked in tournaments, it’s a bit of a balancing act to make sure we do prioritise Test cricket and cherish every moment of that.’’