Abu Dhabi: Australia fast bowler Mitchell Starc on Sunday asserted that they can defy their recent slide in the shortest format and win the T20 World Cup since they are going into the tournament full-strength.
Australia have just six wins from their last 21 games in T20 cricket and have lost five consecutive series — against England, India, New Zealand, the West Indies and Bangladesh.
“We had some really young, inexperienced players and some young guys playing their first games of cricket for Australia come into some really foreign conditions and thrown in the deep end really quickly,” Starc told reporters.
“We have had to navigate a few difficulties, being back home for the guys that have been in lockdown in Sydney or Melbourne or playing very little amount of cricket for their states.”
Starc said Australia’s slide from being at the top in May last year to seventh in the T20 rankings is misleading and irrelevant to the T20 World Cup.
“It’s a huge positive that we have got our full-strength team here available to us for the World Cup. Obviously we didn’t have that through the West Indies and Bangladesh,” Starc said.
“Obviously we have had a few guys here in the IPL as well so it’s a mixed bag of preparation for everyone. Some have been playing some cricket, some have been trying to find ways to prepare for this tour.”
In the six past editions of the T20 World Cup, Australia have reached the final only once — in 2010 when they lost to England.
“It’s no secret that we haven’t won a T20 World Cup so I’m looking forward to hopefully being a part of our first one,” Starc said.
“We have got our full-strength team available … it’s up to us now. We have set out to win the World Cup. We don’t want anything less,” said the 31-year-old left-arm pacer.
Australia begin their campaign against South Africa in Abu Dhabi on 23 October.
“In terms of our make-up, the group feels like we have covered all bases that we need to for these conditions,” Starc, who has taken 51 wickets from 41 T20Is, said.
“I am feeling good about it. We have all played enough cricket to know what we need to do to best prepare ourselves for these sorts of tournaments.”