Aaron Finch admitted that Australian players are a bit tired due to hectic schedule.
Australian captain Aaron Finch admitted his players are a bit tired due to hectic schedule and they needed to freshen up before kickstarting their title defence at home, as the stage is set for the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup 2022, starting on October 16 with the qualifier stage before moving to the Super 12 round.
Notably, Australia has been constantly playing cricket for the past few months, hosting Zimbabwe and New Zealand, then travelling to India before hosting the West Indies and England in the home T20Is.
Aaron Finch said at the press conference in Brisbane, “I think the guys are probably a little bit tired at the moment. The schedule has been so packed over the last six to eight weeks that we identified a couple of months ago that we wanted to make sure that we're in a position to be peaking at the right time of the World Cup and not beforehand.”
The Aussie skipper continued, “So, it's going to be important over the next couple of days to try and freshen everyone up as much as we can.”
Meanwhile, England captain Jos Buttler admitted that the T20 format is unpredictable, but despite that fact, Australia remains the favourites for the T20 World Cup 2022 title at home.
Buttler said in Melbourne: “T20 is one of those games that can be unpredictable, but I think history tells you that, generally, the host nation are slight favourites in big tournaments.”
He added, “Many of us have travelled and played in Australia and know the conditions, but of course no-one is going to know the conditions or be as accustomed to them as the Australian team. They are also reigning champions, so you have to pick them out probably as favourites for the tournaments.”
On the other hand, Finch admitted that England "definitely outplayed" Australia in the recent T20I series while adding that his players will get much needed rest before their first match against New Zealand on October 22 at T20 World Cup 2022, which means many players might miss the warm-up match against India.
The veteran opener added, “With the bat, we were always just one wicket down further than we needed to be over the whole series. In big run chases, you need that one in batter towards the back of the innings and we probably were just falling a little bit short each time with that. All in all, we're not bad, just a little sharpen up would be nice.”
Finch was also confident that his players would be ready for their tournament opener against New Zealand. He signed off by saying, “We can't control what's already gone. We know how hard the guys train. Each person trained really well individually, and as a group, we trained fantastic. It's just about guys peaking at the right time and not burning out too early.”
(With AFP Inputs)