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About a week or so ago, India were searching their first win on the tour of Australia. A victory in an inconsequential fifth ODI later, India have notched up three more in the T20Is that followed to seal a rare whitewash victory in Australia.
Some might argue it was only a second-string Australian side that was put up to play India but then there’s not much a visiting side can do about that. They have to play what’s in front of them and India have done well enough in that regard in both the T20Is so far.
The other question that’s being asked is if Australia took these T20Is seriously.
It’s hard to guess how a conversation in the Aussie T20 selection committee meeting usually goes but it surely isn’t too hard to understand T20 cricket isn’t too high on their priority list. This is particularly so given their decision to rest two of their main batsmen in the middle of a series that was still alive.
And all that with the World Cup less than 45 days away.
It might have made sense to give Steven Smith and David Warner a break from this series had they been playing a lot of Twenty20 cricket even domestically. However, with neither having featured even in the Big Bash League, it’s a decision that smacks of belittling of the format.
ODIs and Tests obviously make for the bigger fish, what with Australia being the world champions and a potential Test world number one. However, surely the lure of holding the top crowns in all three formats together should push the selectors and the board into not consigning T20 cricket as a long-lost cousin of the older formats?
It’s one thing to take one’s time to understand the intricacies of a format later than the others, quite another to almost refuse to do it.
Teams all over the world have had their issues with a new format – India took the best part of a decade and two World Cup tournaments to zero down upon their ODI squad and tactics before pocketing the 1983 World Cup.
It’s not just about picking the best players for the format alone though. The lack of Twenty20 International cricket last year, in the lead-up to a World T20 is quite startling too.
In 2015, Australia played in just one T20I. Among full member nations, the next-worst was four matches. Pakistan played in 10 games, South Africa featured in 9.
In the lead-up to the World T20, Australia play a decent number of T20Is – these three against India and then another three in South Africa – but none in sub-continent conditions. According to the latest schedule of warm-up matched before that tournament, Australia don’t figure in any but that itinerary will be tweaked one hopes.
Overall, however, Australia have played 80 T20Is which is a decent number given there are just three others who have played more than that, which gives one hope last year’s figure was only an aberration and that the World Cup and the Ashes had a part to play there.
Speaking of the squad itself, there’s an obvious need for consistency. Players who are regulars in a format have a better chance of succeeding than those who get selected for the one-off game and then get dropped for a senior one.
Is it possible for a player to feature in all three formats and excel at each consistently? If it makes more sense to keep the high-class Test and ODI players away from T20Is, in turn grooming a specialist T20 side, is that the best way forward?
By playing Smith and Warner in one game and resting them from the remaining two doesn’t do this – it encourages instability.
Australian selector Mark Waugh, while commentating for the Indian broadcaster Star Sports in the third T20I, went on the defensive. He spoke about the need to release their main guys for the New Zealand series.
By doing that, he’s held his hands up and pointed fingers at how the cramped schedule made it impossible for them to pick their best team for the games.
Combine this with the fact Australia played only one Twenty20 last year, it makes me wonder if the board needs to re-look at their scheduling?
It probably also comes back to how seriously the format is taken.
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