Singapore-born Tim David, who has played a handful of T20I matches for the country of his birth, made his debut for Australia in the shortest format of the game on Sept 20 against India in Mohali and played a short but crucial role in the Kangaroos’ win in 1st T20I of the three-match series.
He made 18 in 14 balls with 1 six and 1 four while Cameron Green’s 61 and Matthew Wade’s 45* took Australia home in a tough chase of a 209-run target.
Talking about his experience of playing in India and his T20I debut for Australia, Tim David said that given that he played in India in IPL 2022 for Mumbai Indians, he knew the pressure and it helped calm him down.
"I think having had the experience of playing in India before and playing a fair bit of T20 cricket recently, I felt calm the other night because I knew that we're in a good position to be able to chase those runs.
And the way the pitch was playing so I think to get over the line, you know, that still has to happen. It doesn't just happen straight away. And that was some brilliant performances from our batsman, the chase that score down,” said David during a virtual press conference.
"Having some good experience playing in India, I think finishing off games and understanding how it can go and how the pitches can play or when it kind of lights up in front of you, so you know, there can be an advantage batting second in Indian conditions. That was a good experience - that IPL - to draw on to the other night out there in the middle," added David.
Talking about his role in the Australian team, David said: "I think my role on the team here is to be batting in the middle order. So that means that I'm not going to be facing a lot of balls in matches. And I'm probably going to try and put the foot down with my batting first or if we're chasing, trying to finish off the game. So I've got to tick off my boxes of trying to play powerful shots, trying to clear the boundary and I think that's a big part of my training.
So I try and get volume in the nets because, let's say, in a three-match series here I like face 20 balls ...so I've got a lot of my work done in the nets. And be prepared to kind of be on for every ball."
"I think it's pretty straightforward. It's very similar to what I've been playing T20 cricket over the last year and 18 months so I guess I'm trying to bring my experiences that I've had so far and just take the game on and help the team win games."
Tim David was also asked if he had thought of playing for Australia in the recent T20 World Cup 2022 after he was named in the defending champions’ squad for the tournament.
He said: "To be honest, I didn't give it very much thought. It's just it's kind of evolved naturally to be here at this stage. Yeah, I haven't thought about that too much. "I just look to win a game which is in front of me and don't put any expectations on that. I just try and keep the game very simple. I don't look too far ahead of myself. I'm trying to stay pretty grounded and train harder than that and just improve as much as I can."
(PTI inputs)
