Australia awaits a trial by spin in the 2024 T20 World Cup, with Australia emerging as the odd team out in the entire Asian Super Eight group.
Having won their first three games, Mitchell Marsh’s side will progress to the next stage of the tournament regardless of what happens against Scotland in St Lucia on Sunday.
The main talking point of the match will be its impact on England. In other words, Australia suffered enough defeats to knock off the defending champions. But beyond that, Australia’s path to winning all three men’s ICC global titles is now looking much clearer ahead of the second T20 World Cup.
As per pre-tournament seeding, Australia will meet India and Afghanistan in the Super Eight group. Bangladesh sat in the box to join Nepal after they fell one point short of a shocking South Africa defeat on Saturday.
This trio will pose a significant challenge against an Australian team that has traditionally struggled to turn wickets.
“We don’t expect anything different, they are all going to be a very difficult team to beat on the day. We are expecting them to hit us with quite a spin in the next minute.”
India has relied more on pace in the American match so far, but will have Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav at their disposal in the slower Caribbean match.
Meanwhile, Wade added that he hopes this tournament will not be a farewell to Australia. He was expected to retire after the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups, but the 36-year-old continued to pose a threat to Australia’s number seven batsmen.
“You do your best when it’s your last chance,” Wade said. “Hopefully we can pull some good things out of it next time, but it’s going to be the same conversation at the end of this. There will be players leaving this team. I’m a lot more comfortable with what I’m doing. I’m looking forward to playing for Australia in the next cycle.” “I’m one of them to get the players.”
