Ahead of the first Twenty20 International against India, Australia skipper Aaron Finch on Monday hoped that his bowlers will execute well their plans against experienced batsmen Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh in the three matches.
India will seek to reverse their One-Day International (ODI) series blues and hit some form ahead of the World Twenty20 in their meeting with the hosts at the Adelaide Oval here.
India goes into the series after suffering a 1-4 defeat in the ODI series against the hosts. They are to host the World T20 from March 8 to April 3 where they will take on New Zealand in the opening match of their campaign on March 15 at Nagpur.
Yuvraj, who has not played for India since the 2014 World T20 final, is back in the national squad after a strong performance in the domestic Vijay Hazare Trophy.
Besides Yuvraj, left-handed batsman Suresh Raina, who was dropped from the ODI squad will be waiting to prove himself once again after a successful domestic season.
Raina led Uttar Pradesh to maiden glory in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament recently.
“India have brought in a lot of experienced players, which I think leading up to a world tournament in a couple of months is about trying everyone possible. We’ll have some individual plans for guys like Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina. It’s just important that our guys with the ball have got to execute plans as well as you can. If they’re just hitting the good ball, that’s not a problem,” Finch said at the pre-match press conference ahead of the T20 match on Tuesday.
“When you’ve got a group of senior players, it’s brings quite a calmness to the group. There tends to be less panic in the dressing room. If you’ve a lot of youngsters, everyone’s on edge. Whereas the senior players know how the games go. If they’re still the best players regardless of their age, you just pick them,” he said.
Australia are sweating on the fitness of their hard-hitting batsman Glenn Maxwell who is struggling with an injury.
But they have enough batsmen in form to cover for his absence with David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh all among runs.
All-rounder Shane Watson was included in the T20I squad after being dropped from the ODIs and he will be raring to give his all both with the ball and the bat.
Pacer Shaun Tait has been recalled by Australia after an absence of almost five years and the 32-year-old will aim to use the conditions to good effect and mark a memorable comeback in international cricket.
“In T20I, and in ODI cricket, if you don’t take wickets with the new ball, it puts so much pressure on the others because it is so hard to contain good batting line-ups on flat wickets through the middle overs.
“Where Australia have been good over the while is we’ve been able to take early wickets. And on the other side, we’ve been able to accelerate through the middle part and really set up a strong back half of the innings. It’s no different in this format as well,” he added.
“You have to get off to a flier, but it’s a bit of a risk-reward. If you’ve got damaging players who can bat through the middle overs, then it sets up and gives you a lot more freedom for the back half of the innings, and Shaun Tait is worth taking that risk.”
