Australia will play two warmups against India and New Zealand ahead of the ICC mega event.
Even though many of Australia’s players skipped their recent white-ball tours of West Indies and Bangladesh, Australian skipper Aaron Finch is confident of bringing their maiden T20 World Cup trophy home even with this underdone squad.
With ace pacer Pat Cummins not playing a match since April, along with skipper Finch out of the sport owing to his recent knee surgery, Australia’s two warmup matches against India and New Zealand will be very crucial ahead of the ICC mega event.
“The two warmup games and the lead-in to the World Cup are going to be really crucial. It's a difficult one because training indoors or training just in the nets is obviously no comparison obviously to game intensity,” Finch told reporters on Wednesday.
Some Aussie cricketers are currently a part of the recently resumed IPL 2021 which is also played in UAE where the upcoming showpiece event will also be played.
Even though Marcus Stoinis is battling a hamstring strain and Steve Smith has played only a bit-part role for Delhi Capitals (DC), the right-handed Finch is confident of winning the tournament.
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“But I've got a lot of confidence in the experience of the group. We've got guys who have come off long layoffs before, we've got guys who have come off injuries before. And it's not really all that much different when you're trying to get yourself up to speed quickly,” the 34-year-old said.
Despite winning the ODI World Cup five times, they have always underperformed in T20 World Cups, with their best result as runner-up finish came back in the 2010 edition.
“We feel as though we've got a squad that can win the World Cup. We've had an interrupted preparation as everyone has over the last 18 months. We're still very confident, though. We know if we play to our best we're going to be hard to beat ... We've just got to be at our best at the right time,” the Australian captain signed off.
Australia will kick start their T20 World Cup 2021 campaign with a match against South Africa on 23 October (Saturday) at Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
(With Reuters Inputs)