Australia pacer Mitchell Starc on Monday (July 5) said the upcoming five-match T20I series against the West Indies is a great opportunity for his team to start preparation with a bit more focus for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 to be held in the UAE and Oman later this year.
At the moment, Aaron Finch-led Australian team is in the West Indies to play a limited-overs series, comprising five T20Is, beginning Friday, July 9 in St Lucia and three ODIs on July 20, 22, and 24.
Ahead of the T20I series, Starc is excited as it will help him get into the rhythm. He has not played in the T20 World Cup in nine years and the pacer is aiming to sharpen his T20 skills in order to make it to Australia’s squad for the showpiece event.
As reported by ESPNcricinfo, Starc said: “It's a great opportunity for the group to start preparing with a bit more focus on that World Cup. Don't think I've played 10 T20s in the last four years let alone in the space of a few weeks so personally, it would be nice to get a bit of a rhythm of T20 cricket.”
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The speedster also revealed that he is working on fine-tuning his white-ball skills and has changed his preparation for the upcoming T20I series in the West Indies keeping T20 World Cup 2021 in mind.
Starc said, “The back end of the summer I was heavily focused on the red-ball so put the white-ball to the side. To prepare for this tour it's all been white-ball focused with what's coming up in the next few months. Preparing for shorter spells, more of a focus on staying unpredictable or [using] variations.”
He signed off by saying, “I don't change a whole lot in my preparation across the formats but certainly they'll be a lot more planning and focus on tactically what we'll take on this series.”
Noteworthy, Australia captain Finch had already made it clear that the performances in the West Indies and Bangladesh tour will play a key role for the players, who are eyeing to win a spot for the ICC T20 World Cup to be played from 17 October to 14 November in the UAE and Oman.
(With ANI Inputs)
