The experienced Australia leg-spinner Adam Zampa feels that pulling out of the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 was the best decision he took before the start of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, co-hosted by the West Indies and the United States of America (USA).
The wrist-spinner made this comment on the back of his match-winning spell of 2/28 against England, at the Kensington Oval, in Bridgetown, Barbados, that helped his side to start their campaign with back-to-back wins over Oman and England respectively.
With this superb bowling performance, led by Adam Zampa, the Aussies handed over the defending champions a decent 36-run defeat, and moves themselves to the top of the table with a net run rate of +1.875.
‘My body feels great and just did that bit of extra work’ – Adam Zampa
On June 8, England captain Jos Buttler, on winning the toss, opted to bowl first on a track which was expected to help the seamers a little bit at the start, but the fear was always on whether it would get slow towards the afternoon period.
Thanks to an aggressive opening partnership of Travis Head and Dravid Warner, the 2021-champions flew off to a great start with the bat, as they nailed 70-runs in the first five overs. After a steady opening over of Moeen Ali, Butler decided to go with Will Jacks, which costed him and the whole team 22-runs. Aussie captain Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell put up a handy 65-run stand for the third wicket, to bring them back after losing two back-to-wickets.
Marcus Stoinis came towards the back-end of the innings, and displayed his power before the England bowlers as his 17-ball 30-run knock carried them over the 200-run mark, for the very first time in the history of the tournament.
England started brilliantly too, as their openers Buttler and Phil Salt used the powerplay quite brilliantly to put up an 73-run opening partnership. But once they lost their very first wicket, the weapons began to fell like a pack of cards. Australia started to chip in with regular intervals.
Adam Zampa was introduced in the seventh over, and on his very first delivery, he showed his magic by breaking the stumps of Salt, to bring Australia back in the affair. After getting smashed for a six, the wrist-spinner sent back the opponent captain with a tossed-up delivery, and returned with figures of 2/28 in four overs.
When asked on how he prepared himself for the tournament, the 32-year-old was quick to shed light on his decision to pull out of the IPL 2024, where he was included in the Rajasthan Royals team.
‘Yeah, obviously made that decision a little while ago to pull out of the IPL and I thought it was the best thing for me moving forward into this World Cup. I was tired, I had some niggles and I’m a family man as well, so trying to put them first over work sometimes is pretty important,” New South Wales-born, Adam Zampa reflected on the post-match press conference.
The veteran, who now has 96 T20I wickets in 82 games at an economy of 7.26, also spoke about how he gave an extra work to get his body ready for the event.
‘So, yeah, I actually am a bit of a slow starter and I put in a little bit of extra work. My body feels great and just did that bit of extra work. Maybe a bit more bowling than I usually would before a tournament like this.
“And then the practice games and everything just feels nice at the moment. And yeah, I think it’s, I am a little bit of a slow starter, but this feels like a rare occasion where I’ve started how I want to,” Adam Zampa concluded.
Australia will now lock horns with Namibia, on June 12, at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.