T20 World Cup: Aussies can’t be caught napping in Super 8s

Australia can’t afford to look too far ahead. This is not going to be as straightforward as you’d think.

Pat Cummins during a net session in Antigua. Picture: Getty Images

The 8.30pm starts during this T20 World Cup have been pretty brutal – in addition to not really catering to a particular region, unless you are in Western Australia, strangely. For the record, that is 1am in the UK, 6am in India and 10.30am in Sydney and Melbourne.

Not only have they resulted in very late finishes, with some of these matches finishing well past midnight. There’s also for the more restless kind, the challenge of having to wait all day long for them to begin.

More so if you are one of the 22 who actually has to front up on the ground. Travis Head certainly has had some adjusting to do, especially in terms of timing his afternoon power naps. And like he said after Australia’s five-wicket win against Scotland in St Lucia, he hasn’t always done the best job of it.

“I’ve got to time my naps well,” Head said. “It’s been a challenge the last couple of games, the 8.30 ones. I probably left my sleep a little bit later in the afternoon and woke up a bit sleepy.

“So, it might have to be before midday. No sleeping after midday – but it’s got its challenges. You’re waiting and clockwatching until 7pm, when you leave for the ground,” the South Australian added.

Australia's Travis Head. Picture: Timothy A. Clary/AFP

Not that it seems to have affected the in-form Head in any way with bat in hand. He’s averaged nearly 50 with the bat and has been flying at the top of the order with a strike rate of 157.44 in the first league stage of this World Cup.

Australia and Head now have two more 8.30pm starts to contend with in the Super 8s, starting with the clash against Bangladesh in Antigua on Thursday night (Friday morning for you) before taking on Afghanistan in St Vincent a couple of nights later.

The marquee clash of their Super 8s group, the one that everyone’s eyes will be on, of course will be on Monday (June 24) morning in St Lucia. For most, it will be the battle of the two teams who will progress into the semi-finals with the high likelihood of meeting each other in yet another World Cup final.

But neither Australia nor Head can afford to sleep on either of their first two opponents and simply focus all their energies on when come up against the likes of Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground. It would be ill-advised.

Let’s start with Afghanistan, who they’ll be up against in their second Super 8s encounter. Rashid Khan and his team are no longer the Cinderella story of world cricket. Their successes on the field no longer need any context that goes beyond the field. Nor are their victories over teams like New Zealand, who they completely dominated earlier in the tournament, deemed to be “upsets”.

They are a professional and seasoned outfit, especially in T20 cricket, who in many ways have more experience playing in this format than even some of the most experienced Australians at this World Cup.

Rashid Khan of Afghanistan. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

Purely in terms of the number of matches Rashid and his merry men have accumulated between them in recent years anyway. The number of Afghans plying their trade in the Indian Premier League has grown substantially over time, and in this current season there were as many of them as there were West Indians.

And the stats that Rashid, of Adelaide Strikers fame on Australian soil, has amassed while playing across the various T20 leagues in the world are close to mind-boggling.

They were a force to be reckoned with in last year’s 50-over World Cup as well. If not for a few fielding mishaps and a Glenn Maxwell freak show masterclass, they would not only have beaten Australia at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, they might also have been in a great position to qualify for the semi-finals.

So, there’s a bit of that payback riding on the contest as well. The crucial factor that might worry Australia, though, is the pitch in St Vincent, which so far has favoured the spinners incessantly and has been overall turgid and difficult to bat on. They are conditions that will suit the multifaceted Afghan bowling attack more than even the world-class Australian bowlers.

And if anything, it’s that particular match that the Australian selectors have had to put their thinking cap on for more than even the India clash. The expectation is for the former champions and treble hopefuls to bring in Ashton Agar into the mix.

The fact they are even considering to not pick one of their three big-name fast bowlers is a sign of how seriously Mitchell Marsh and his team will be taking Afghanistan. As they should. Not to forget the fact that they go from playing in St Vincent on a turning track against Afghanistan to taking on India on the flat deck in St Lucia within 30 hours, including an early morning flight the next day.

This is not to say that they can overlook Bangladesh, who have made their way into the second round from a group that had South Africa and Sri Lanka. Shakib Al Hasan is still around, for yet another World Cup, but like with Afghanistan, it’s Bangladesh’s bowling improvements that make them an equally dangerous outfit at this stage of the World Cup.

They might not be everyone’s favourites to progress into the semi-finals, but they’ve done it before and if rain does play a role in Antigua as it has already this week, then the Bangladeshis could well be in with a shout.

Having said all that, it’s been one of the more dominant starts to a World Cup campaign from Australia. If anything, they are the team with the most momentum going into the business end of the competition.

But Bangladesh and Afghanistan are just the kind of teams who could force a slip-up. So, no naps after noon for Travis Head. And no looking too far ahead for the rest of his team. This is not going to be as straightforward as you’d think.