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Australia’s best chance at T20 glory

The ICC World Twenty20 has been the one trophy has that eluded Australia since its creation, but Josh Schonafinger thinks things will be different in 2014.

The ICC World Twenty20 is fast becoming an important feature on the international cricketing calendar.

Yet it remains the only international trophy Australia has not won since its inception in 2007. Despite this, the 2014 tournament, to be held in Bangladesh, presents the best opportunity yet for Australia to take the title.

The Australians’ record at the tournament is encouraging, despite having never gone home with the trophy. With 13 wins and eight losses, only Pakistan and Sri Lanka have better records across the four World Twenty20 tournaments. Australia has made it to the semi-finals twice and made one final, losing to England in 2010.

However, in 2009, they were unable to progress through the group stages.

Nobody can deny that it’s been a fantastic summer for the Aussies. From a resounding Ashes victory to the underdog triumph in South Africa, almost everything has fallen the way of the revitalised Australian team.

This year, Australia’s own Big Bash League was put on free-to-air television and dominated households for over a month with high quality cricket.

Now, the green and gold have a great chance to cap off the summer by building on the talent unearthed in the BBL and delivering on the big stage that is the World Twenty20.

Success breeds success and the all-conquering Australian Test side looks to have rubbed off onto the Twenty20 outfit, beating South Africa 2-0 in the three-match series just completed.

While momentum has built confidence, this Australian side looks to have the right mix of players in the shortest format of the game.

It’s taken a long time, but John Inverarity and his colleagues have finally recognised that there’s a formula for success in the Twenty20 format.

The Chennai Super Kings of the IPL and the Perth Scorchers of Australia’s BBL are prime examples of having sustained positive results over many seasons. They both had common denominators in their lineups and now Australia too has the three key components that make a successful Twenty20 side:

1) Batsmen who can explode from ball one:

Batting has let Australia down on numerous occasions in Twenty20 cricket. At the highest level, players can’t afford to take three overs to get their eye in. David Warner, Aaron Finch and Shane Watson can put the foot down from the outset, knowing versatile batsmen like Brad Hodge, George Bailey and Glenn Maxwell are there to continue blasting or steady the ship later in the innings.

2) Pace and strike bowlers:

Australia has trialled a versatile mix ranging from Brett Lee to Dirk Nannes to Shaun Tait, but has never strung together enough consistently. Now, in the form of Mitchell Starc, Nathan Coulter-Nile and James Faulkner, Australia has three genuine wicket-taking bowlers. Wickets win games and similarly to the batting stocks, all-out aggression is the order of the day.

3) Restrictive spinners:

Having a quality spinner is always handy, but particularly in the sub-continent it is crucial. Brad Hogg, James Muirhead and Glenn Maxwell are all bowlers that can tie up an end, and as a result, they can be regular wicket-takers.

 

 

 

Australia look to have ticked all of the boxes ahead of the tournament. And interestingly, there is a good omen too; four Twenty20 World Cup Tournaments so far have yielded four different champions.

The Aussies can become the fifth.

Josh Schonafinger is a student at La Trobe University, currently studying Bachelor of Journalism (Sport). You can follow him on Twitter: @joshschon.

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