The primary reason behind Australia’s faltered run chase in the first T20I at Adelaide was that the hosts played too many big shots in the middle overs against the Indian spinners. On big Australian grounds with large dimensions, always opting for the aerial root is not something sensible and appropriate. Australia’s vice-captain David Warner felt the same about his team’s collapse against MS Dhoni’s India in the first T20I fixture.
Warner, though, was optimistic about executing the big shots successfully on Indian grounds which are quite smaller than the Australian grounds. Warner said that he would opt to play the lofted shots on the Indian grounds for the T20 World Cup. “I think in India you get away with trying to hit boundaries because it’s a bit smaller if you just hit either side of the fielders around the bat you can get a lot more value for your shots. Basically, here our batting wasn’t there last night and that’s trying to get twos on the big fields,” Warner said.
The southpaw, though, was critical of Australia’s batting blunder against the Indian spinners. “It was 4 for 50 off eight, that’s always something we need to improve on – it’s something we’ve always spoken about,” Warner said. “During those middle overs, I think a lot of us get carried away with trying to play a lot of big shots and not actually trying to take advantage of the big fields in Australia.”
“We have to be mindful of that and careful. Losing 4 for 50 in eight overs to spin is not ideal, and something we have to work on is pinching those twos and hitting the ball down the ground. You can go for the odd big shot, generally, that comes in the first two balls of the over, then you’ve got to see if you can score six or seven an over after that,” Warner added.