All the teams are gearing up for the T20 World Cup like bride or groom for the D-Day. Well, the day is near and there are definitely jitters about the arrangements. One of the most important being the venue. Australia is all set to host the shortest format Cup. It carries a reputation of being fiery and supporting batters. But since the games’ rules are changed and so is batting style, we may never know what to expect. Let’s see if this T20 World Cup 2022 Australia will be a batting or bowling feast?
What is there for Batters?
If we look at it, Batters have a lot in favor of them in cricket, in general. The rules are massively in their support. Be it the field restriction, powerplay, Free hit rules or many. The T20 format hurts the ego of a bowler because they play to not get hit for massive runs.
In Australia, batters get the ball on bat quite decently. The ball doesn’t swing in the air, but it deflects mostly because of the deflection in pitch as it wears off. Kookaburra has the tendency to test bowlers and that is something that favors batters.
What’s there for bowlers?
A lot it seems!
Pacers
Australia serves challenging pitches for both bowlers and batters. On the surface, the pitches there appear to be more suited to faster bowlers because of the extra pace and bounce they offer, but the situation is more complicated.
Due to the dryness of the clay and dirt of the tracks, Australian wickets have a naturally firm surface. Australian tracks include more clay than other tracks. Nearly all of the pitches used there have a clay content of over 50%.
Because the Australian pitches have less dirt and more clay, the cricket ball makes less contact with the surface and gains some extra speed as soon as it touches the wicket. Most significantly, the ball adds additional bounce to the track, making Australia a centre of pace and bounce.
But, Due to the hot humidity of the surface, the Kookaburra doesn’t swing much unless it is a shiny new ball.
Yet another factor to be considered in these conditions is the cracks that may present on the Oz wickets due to the excessive exposure to the heat. Batting gets difficult when the ball lands on the cracks and behaves abnormally.
Spinners
The grass on the surface makes it harder for the older white ball to grip and turn for spinners. There is really nothing a bowler can do to contain the batsman if the ball neither rotates nor stops on the surface. One has to determine the ideal tempo to bowl at and the ideal length for that specific surface.
Outfield
The outfields of Australian cricket grounds are noticeably slower than those at other cricket grounds. In the end, this makes it even harder for the batsmen to do their jobs while giving the bowlers a slight edge by trapping the batters for mishit strokes.
Furthermore, boundary fielders in Australia’s huge outfields are able to play at the halfway position, which is not the case in any other cricket venues. The field placements here are very dissimilar from those on other international venues.
So, T20 World Cup 2022 Australia: Batting or Bowling feast?
Well, looking at the analysis, it seems that Australia is going to favor bowlers which will be a refreshment to see in T20 cricket. It seems like T20 World Cup 2022 Australia is going to be a bowling feast. We have seen batters dominating the format by scoring 200+ runs regularly. It will be interesting to see how they face the pace challenge Down Under.
