As another edition of the T20 World Cup knocks on, The Indian Express tracks the trends of the T20 milieu and traces the conditions that could influence the tournament
The T20 World Cup will be played in Australia across October and November. The Big Bash League, Australia’s domestic franchise T20 tournament, has never been played in those months since its inception a decade ago. And over the years, the Australian team has played barely a handful of Twenty20 internationals in these early-season months, that too primarily in November. Cricket in Australia has always brought to mind intense contests with players toiling under a hot summer sun, but maximum temperatures at the four venues where India will play their group games – Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and Adelaide – were between 15 and 19 degrees on Wednesday. A few days ago, the BCCI posted a video in which Yuzvendra Chahal—wearing a jumper usually associated with the English summer—spoke about how cold it was in Perth.
“It’s definitely fair to say that cricket is heading into an element of unknown this time in Australia,” says Simon Helmot, the veteran Australian coach, who’s worked with T20 franchises across the world, including BBL side Melbourne Renegades and IPL team Sunrisers Hyderabad. “I ran into the West Indian team the other day and they were packing in some extra jumpers! Not a usual thing for them in Australia for sure.”
Cool climes, drizzle
As summer approaches in the Southern Hemisphere, the weather is expected to gradually get warmer but cool temperatures, accompanied by some rain, are likely to prevail for much of the tournament. The qualifiers, beginning on Sunday, are being played in Geelong (near Melbourne) and Hobart, the two southernmost venues for the tournament. “Sri Lanka’s qualifying venue (Geelong) is definitely going to be very cool conditions. For southern states, it’s going to be a lot cooler. The qualifiers are all caught up in the winter at Hobart. And the forecast suggests it will remain a bit cool for the start of the main event as well,” says Helmot.
“I can’t recall that we’ve ever had a big tournament like a World Cup at this time here. Test matches tend to begin in November, spilling to December. This is definitely earlier. And we are going to play in the evenings.” Both the 1992 and 2015 ODI World Cups, co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand, were played much later in the summer, in February and March.
Spongy bounce, over-spin
How will this scheduling novelty impact the playing conditions? “Well, for starters, a longer warm-up routine!,” jokes Helmot. The Australian reckons lesser swing, more seam and tennis-ball spongy rather than fast bounce for the pacers. And more over-spin than side-spin for spinners, with the ball potentially holding up a bit on fresh pitches.
“I have observed in the past that when it gets cooler in Australia, there is usually lesser swing. But there could be opportunity for bowlers to get more seam and sideways movement, especially in the first part of the tournament,” says Helmot.
Rain will surely be a factor affecting pitch preparation at some of the venues, and how much time the surfaces spend under covers will also influence how they behave. “I expect high-quality cricket but there would be subtle differences to what we might see, when contrasted from what we usually see in Australia when the sun is beaming out. We have had quite a bit of rain in Australia, especially in Sydney, Victoria, and probably Adelaide.
“Pitch preparation needs direct sunlight and some hydration. Most wicket blocks will be fresh. Depending on how much sunlight the wickets get (they are all drop-in and fresh) it can sometimes play a bit slower. It depends on the drop-in surface and preparation put in. All the groundsmen will be working hard, of course. So we got to see. Also, Australia is such a vast country, the pitches might well be different.”
Diverse pitches
The country is vast enough to allow international cricket even in August and September far up north in Townsville and Cairns, where Zimbabwe and New Zealand toured for ODI series earlier this year. And although it has been cold, there hasn’t been rain in distant Perth – unlike the other major cities to the east – with a T20I between England and Australia producing 200-run totals in both innings. “We saw some excellent scores in Perth, so there is no problem in Perth. MCG has been a good T20 wicket for many years now; I think the scores should still be high overall,” he says.
In some parts of the country, producing batting-friendly surfaces could be a challenge for the groundsmen. “But maybe in Victoria, Hobart, there would be more challenges for groundsmen to produce batting-friendly wickets… they are expecting heck of rain in New South Wales and Victoria. They are saying 50 mm, which is a large amount of rain. We shall have to see how the rain part of the weather forecast plays out. I still suspect that there will be good scores but there might be a little bit of assistance to the bowlers.”
Bounce, a constant
Regardless of the variation in conditions, it is Australia after all, so bounce is expected to be a constant, although its nature could be different from what we are used to seeing Down Under. “It’s cooler and I think the pitches might play out a touch slower, but there will definitely be carry. Don’t worry about that. It will bounce. It will be a matter of the pace at which it carries. But rather than sharp, fast rearing-at-face bounce, I expect more of a tennis-ball bounce maybe, which I have seen in similar conditions in Australia,” Helmot says.
“Some teams might be more familiar and comfortable with conditions, like New Zealand. Some like West Indies might be uncomfortable.” West Indies managed scores of 145 and 147 in twin defeats to Australia in Queensland last week. Fifteen of the 16 wickets they lost to bowlers fell to the seamers.
Will that mean a lesser role for the spinners than they are accustomed to in Australia? In T20Is, spinners average about a run less in Australia than they do in India, and return a marginally lower economy-rate. But they also generally enjoy drier conditions, allowing for some purchase, which will certainly not be available to the same extent this time. However, Helmot believes they will still have a part to play. “Traditionally in Australia, where the wickets have become drier due to direct sunlight beaming in on them, they have assisted turn. More extraction of spin,” he says. “This time of the year, spin can be gained the other way, with more over-spin than side-spin and if there is a bit of greenery on the surface, then the ball can stick in the wicket on patches, sort of hold up, not hold up like subcontinental conditions, but generally with the slowness and the grass on surface which I expect, there might be patches,” he adds.
Resultantly, he expects more over-spin than side-spin, which could potentially benefit finger spinners like Ravichandran Ashwin. “So I would suspect more over-spin than side. The wickets may be newer and more live grass and we know spin can still be used there but it’s a different type of spin. More over-spin, more bounce, more holding spin rather than proper turning wickets that we can get at the SCG or Adelaide Oval in the past. What might be interesting is if it rains and there is moisture on it, it can then turn and stop a bit.”
With barely any games to go by in the same period previously, the uncertainty and variables surrounding the conditions would probably have been hard to model for team managements. All in all, as cricket heads straight into a T20 World Cup with more than a few elements of the unknown, we seem to be set for some interesting outcomes, and viewing.
(With inputs from Sriram Veera)
