T20 World Cup 2021 | Not all doom and gloom for Australia, top-order needs to fire, feels Brett Lee
Brett Lee is optimistic about Australia making a comeback at the T20 World Cup 2021, after the team’s eight-wicket defeat to England in their most recent outing in Dubai. The former speedster emphasised on the role of the top-order, and pondered over the possible changes in the line-up.
After wins over South Africa and Sri Lanka, Australia were thoroughly outplayed by England in Dubai on Saturday, October 30. With England having confirmed their semi-final berth and South Africa having won three out of four, the race to finish in top-two has intensified in Group 1.
Australia have an advantage of having one game less than the Proteas so far, but their net run-rate (NRR) took a major beating after their recent defeat, and currently stands at -0.627.
Brett Lee acknowledged England’s brilliance against Australia, but was hopeful of Aaron Finch’s men staging a comeback in the competition.
“England were outstanding against Australia in their much-anticipated encounter of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021,” wrote Lee in his column for the ICC. “The 50-over World champions were just too good in the end, it’s as simple as that. Parts of the game were outstanding for Australia but in other parts they probably let themselves down.
“Now it’s not all doom and gloom for Australia – I try and look at things from a positive point of view. There are a lot of people saying, ‘he shouldn’t be in the team’, ‘he shouldn’t be batting there’ and so on.
“But they say in Hindi, ‘aaram se, aaram se’, and that means to relax and go about things patiently. I think that’s a really good expression that the team can use just to relax. Everything will be okay.”
Lee, who was an integral part of Australia’s victorious campaigns at the 2003 World Cup and the 2006 and 2009 Champions Trophy editions, asked for an attacking approach from the batting group.
“I know the Aussies want to get off to a flyer, I heard Warner say it, I heard it from Aaron Finch and they are two brilliant players, two guys I’d pick in my side every single day of the week,” he wrote.
“Maybe it’s about taking the foot off the accelerator a fraction at the top. I know that some teams go really hard in the first six but other teams don’t take as many risks so perhaps Australia can do that but I’ll still back Warner every day of the week to go downtown first ball if he has to.
“The top order has to fire, they have to get runs from guys like Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, who has been in good form the first two games but missed out with a duck against England and that’s part of the game.
“Matthew Wade has been getting a few runs, getting some starts but Australia need a big 40 or 50 from him to finish so there are areas where Australia can take some positives out.”
The 44-year-old singled out England as the team to beat in the competition.
“I thought India would be really tough to beat before the tournament started but from what we’ve seen from England, they are outstanding and they are really starting to put some disciplined games together even though it’s a shorter format,” he wrote.
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