Staring at yet another series defeat, Australia’s stand-in skipper David Warner, on Monday, backed his side to bounce back in the three-match Twenty20 series against India at Guwahati. Having suffered a 1-4 defeat in the five-match One-day International series, Australia are 0-1 down after losing the opening Twenty20 International in the three-match series.
“We have just got to keep going out there and keep backing ourselves 100 %. We have just got to keep playing the game that we know and that’s the brand of cricket that we bring to the table,” Warner was quoted as saying by PTI.
Australia lost the first game in Ranchi after a familiar batting collapse but Warner was unfazed, “I don’t look too much into it. At the end of the day even if you get out early then there’s a collapse in the middle after a partnership, everyone becomes frustrated. No one wants to get out. Yeah, there’s always reasons why it happens. People talk about pressure, people talk about having two batsmen in and then having two batsmen get out. It’s important no matter what the circumstance, we try and win every game possible. Just getting a victory over here is always challenging, it’s going to be tough, you have to play to the best of your ability.”
‘If you give India a sniff, they’re going to pounce’
Throughout the series, India have managed to win key moments during matches, something that Warner acknowledged. He said: “If you give India a sniff on your home soil or even away, they’re going to pounce. You have to be on top of your game to beat an opposition in their country. We’ve got a lot to play for.”
Australia’s limited overs tour to India is sandwiched between two Test series – against Bangladesh and the upcoming home Ashes series next month – and some of the players will have adjust to the longer-format. Warner rued about the crammed schedule: “I just know that when we are available we are going to play. It’s a very tough schedule as it is for every single country. I’m not actually looking at the Ashes at the moment. I’m concentrating on tomorrow’s game. When you are playing a long series and have got Test matches coming up or you were playing a Test match like we did and there was a T20 on, it’s quite hard.”
Warner, however, said they would have to stop complaining as the FTP (Future Tours Programme) is put in place years in advance. “I’m not going to sit here and say we should or we should not. At the end of the day, we have just got to go out there and play the best cricket we can. You’ve basically got to pick and choose when to rest your big players,” he said.
The Cricket Australia is reportedly in talks with Ricky Ponting, Justin Langer, Jason Gillespie and current stand-in- coach David Saker for a T20I specialist coach to deal with the scheduling. “That’s the first I’ve heard of it. At the end of the day I think that’s the responsibility of the board and the guys that are up there to chair that. From a playing point of view we’ve just got to concentrate on playing cricket,” the southpaw added.
