Zampa on the challenges of spin in the T20 World Cup after loss to Pakistan highlights difficulties ahead.
Zampa warns of World Cup trial by spin in Sri Lanka.
Adam Zampa has cautioned that Australia would likely face the same kind of spin testing at the T20 World Cup in Sri Lanka that caused them to lose their first Twenty20 International match against Pakistan.
In the opening game of their warm-up three-match series in Lahore, Australia lost by 22 runs after being mostly smothered by the hosts’ superb four-pronged spin attack. Zampa was Australia’s best player.
With big guns like Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Glenn Maxwell, Nathan Ellis, and Tim David who aren’t in Pakistan, as well as captain Mitchell Marsh, Josh Inglis, and Marcus Stoinis who were rested from the first game against Pakistan, Australia will be a very different team going into the opening World Cup match against Ireland in Colombo on February 11. Zampa, who took 4 for 24 to ensure it was a competitive affair, acknowledges this.
Additionally, he is certain that Australia will benefit greatly from their experience with the sluggish, low conditions that a shadow team, including three T20I debutants, found so challenging to handle in Lahore during a World Cup where conditions will be very different between the Sri Lankan and Indian venues.
Asked if he felt the Lahore loss was an indication of what was to come at the World Cup, Zampa said: “Definitely in Sri Lanka. If anything, the challenge in Pakistan is the low bounce; in Sri Lanka it probably spins and bounces a little bit more.
“Tonight, I think the challenge was definitely slow off the wicket, and then the low bounce gets you on the bottom of the bat. It’s pretty alien for some of the young guys, particularly, in the group.
“Obviously, we’ve got a very different squad in this series as to what we’ll have in the World Cup. A lot more experience comes back then, but exposing those guys in the middle order, particularly to conditions like those tonight, it’s going to be good for them the long run.
“The conditions will change throughout the World Cup. The first stage of the tournament, particularly in Sri Lanka, the spinners will play a huge role, but it’ll change, definitely in India, where my experience is that it’s totally different — good batting wickets as you’ve seen in the latest series with New Zealand there.”