Team Preview: Australia

by Saurabh Somani



They were semi-finalists two years ago, when they would have believed that they were in fact the best team in the tournament, just as they had been the best at everything else. However, that is no longer the case this time. Now Australia are merely one among the front-runners in the pack, rather than the outright favourites.



Strengths: Well, they are still Australia. They may not have the hubris that they carried when Hayden, McGrath, Gilchrist and Warne were still around, but they have an outsanding pool of talented players available. In the T20 format, where the line between the genius and the merely talented often gets blurred, Australia form a formidable opposition for any team. With a batting order comprising Ponting, Clarke, Haddin, the Husseys, Symonds and Warner - they have a potential match-turner at every position from 1 to 7. Also, Brett Lee has made a successful return, while Nathan Bracken is amongst the most miserly bowlers around. Add Shane Watson to the mix, and you have the ingredients of a side that can sizzle with unbridled power.



Weaknesses: The lack of a quality spinner has hurt them in the past, and could well come back to haunt them now. It doesn't bode well that with spinners being tried out by the dozen, every cricketing analyst still feels that the best tweaker in the country is the one who is retired and plays poker and the IPL. Speaking of which, on pitches that are not featherbeds, the IPL showed just how much effect a quality spinner can have. The best Australia have at present is Nathan Hauritz - and no batsman will lose sleep over him.



Opportunities: They have held every title and ranking worth its name in the last decade, and this is the only one that is missing from their resume. That is something Ricky Ponting will be very keen to get right. They are also the strongest side in their group, and it would take something extraordinary to keep them out of the next stage, where two teams from each group qualify. Therefore, they can also budget for one bad day at the office, and still be a dangerous team.



Threats: Injuries have plagued a lot of their players recently. If 2 or 3 key members get injured, the replacements would probably not fit in and perform as well as established players. Ricky Ponting is returning from some time off, and he cannot afford to take his time to find his groove, given this format. They must also be wary of both teams in their group - Sri Lanka and West Indies - which means that theirs is the only group without a minnow country.



X Factor: David Warner, David Hussey, Andrew Symonds.

Each of them have several things in common - the ability to explode with the bat and clear boundaries at will, the ability to produce a moment of genius on the field and manufacture a wicket with their fielding ability alone, the inability of the opposition to anticipate or know, when they're going to explode and when they're going to fizzle out. Expect them to be part of some match-turning moments if Australia make it to the semi-finals and beyond.



Quotable Quotes:

"There was obviously great incentive with the amount of money that they both (Flintoff, Kevin Pietersen) went for. For us it was a great opportunity to step away from cricket for a few weeks and make sure we were in the best shape we could be in" - Ricky Ponting on the IPL and the Australian players' decision to skip it versus the Englishmen's decision to go for it.



"It's not like I'm trying to hit every ball into the next suburb," Warner says of his pyrotechnic batting. "Basically, if it's in my area, I'm not going to hold back. If it's ball one or the last ball of the day, I'm still not going to hold back. I know when to be more careful, but basically, I want to score off every ball" - David Warner.



The Squad: Ricky Ponting (c), Michael Clarke (vc), Nathan Bracken, Brad Haddin (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes. David Hussey, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Andrew Symonds, David Warner, Shane Watson