Australia keen to smash their way out of the white ball hell that’s engulfed the summer

AUSTRALIA is hoping one of the most ferocious batting line-ups ever fielded in an international match can rescue them from their white ball hell.

Chris Lynn, Dave Warner and Ashton Agar ahead of the first T20 international between Australia and New Zealand at the SCG. Picture: David Swift.

AUSTRALIA is hoping one of the most ferocious batting line-ups ever fielded in an international match can rescue them from their white ball hell.

Desperate to turn around an embarrassing recent record in both one-day and Twenty20 cricket, Australia will on Saturday turn to raw power in a bid to relaunch themselves as a limited overs force against New Zealand at the SCG.

Ranked No. 7 in the world and having never won a Twenty20 World Cup, Australia have Everest to climb if they’re to break their major tournament duck on home soil in two and a half years’ time.

A nightmare scheduling clash again threatens to undermine Australia’s hopes in the tri-series kicking off on Saturday night, with key stars Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Mitchell Marsh all missing.

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Australia’s hopes of getting its home summer back on track rests on the shoulders of the Wolf Pack — David Warner, Chris Lynn, D’Arcy Short and Glenn Maxwell — arguably the most explosive quartet ever unleashed in a T20 international.

The modus operandi for all four is to clear the fences.

CA has already launched a full review into its miserable ODI record (11 losses from its past 13 matches) and are actively trying to schedule more T20 series to catch up with the rest of the world.

Warner has declared Australia is sick of dragging the chain in T20 cricket.

“Look, it doesn’t sit well with us at all but at the end of the day we’ve got to keep improving,” he said.

“We’ve said it for the last 12-24 months about improving our overall assessment of how we play this format.

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“Sometimes we either fall in a heap with our batting or we don’t start well with the ball.

“But the positive thing to come from where we are today is everyone is in form and the team that has been picked, they’re all in serious form.”

Warner believes ‘the best of the Big Bash’ in Short and Lynn can make the step up and his message will be to open the shoulders.

“It is a bigger step but what comes with that is playing with freedom and clarity and knowing your game so well,” he said.

“You don’t need to change anything when you get to this level.

“That’s the message I got across to the guys who are playing well. Keep backing yourself, if you see the ball there, hit it. If you want to swing the ball and you normally swing the ball, just go for it. We’re all about executing your skills and what you do best. That’s who you got here.”

Cricket Australia has already come under heavy criticism for the scheduling of this T20 series which also features England.

England dominated the ODI series.

That scrutiny will only increase if the best of the Big Bash can’t cover for the loss of some of the country’s biggest stars.

It’s hard to argue with the resting of spearheads Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins and the exhausted Steve Smith with a heavy-duty of South Africa just around the corner, but fans may struggle to comprehend how the likes of Mitchell Marsh and Tim Paine can play Big Bash but not for their country.

And also on the other side of the coin, why the Big Bash finals are robbed of some of the country’s best players.

International scheduling is an impossible minefield at times, but Warner insists Australia are taking T20 cricket seriously.

“One hundred per cent. We definitely take it seriously when we’re on the field. We’ve spoken about this numerous times about scheduling and being able to fit the Twenty20 internationals in that calendar and getting everyone fit and ready for that,” said Warner.

“But moving forward, definitely leading into a World Cup here at home (in 2020) I think there’s scheduled to be more T20 internationals. And not just on the back end of series, I think there’s going to be specific times when then the game is going to be played and definitely we 100 per cent take it serious.”

Originally published as Australia keen to smash their way out of the white ball hell that’s engulfed the summer