Australia head coach Andrew McDonald has said the upcoming T20 series against India will offer a good test as to whether their aggressive batting style can bring success. Since the last T20 World Cup in 2024, Australia have embraced an attacking approach with the bat which has seen them score at 10.07 runs per over, with all their batsmen having an improved strike-rate during the period.
While they have beaten the likes of England, Pakistan, West Indies, South Africa and New Zealand, the series against India beginning on Wednesday will offer a stiff challenge. With India having the likes of Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav – three X-factor bowlers in the sidfe – there is huge anticipation as to how the Australian batting unit will come up against this bowling line-up.
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Australia coach McDonald said he is looking forward to test themselves against the reigning world champions. “You’re playing against India, so it’s a really good test on whether this style will hold up,” said McDonald. “They’re the number-one ranked team in the world, I think we’re number two. We’re excited to test ourselves against the best. Those younger players that have got some opportunity, what better opportunity than to play against the best team in the world and stand up in that environment,” McDonald said.
While India too have adapted a similar aggressive approach, Australia have been batting at far higher strike-rate. McDonald said they went in search of this approach after their repeated failures in successive T20 World Cup campaigns. “There has been a shift,” McDonald told reporters in Canberra, which will host the series opener on Wednesday. “We’re 11 games in now from the initial conversation. When we set out on this journey, we’d failed in a couple of World Cups previously, so we wanted to shift and stretch the boundaries on what we thought we could do. So yeah, we have been more aggressive, we’ve played people in different positions. Tim David has batted a little bit higher than previously. Our admission was that we haven’t been successful in a couple of campaigns. We’ve got to change things up. We’ve got to stretch ourselves,” McDonald said.
With the Ashes coming along, Australia will not have their full-strength attack at their disposal but have a pace attack that has enough experience from featuring in T20 leagues across the globe.
“We’re gathering information around what that next crop will be. We’ve been so stable with Starc, Cummins, Hazelwood in white-ball formats,” said McDonald. So to see Ellis shape as a frontline bowler, how we use him, to see Xavier Barlett, Sean Abbott now gets a little bit more runway in terms of pressing his claims as well, then Mahli Beardman joining us in the middle of this series is exciting. We’re excited by that next crop,” he added.
