Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Glenn Maxwell believes it is going to help the Australian team for the T20 World Cup as the players are taking part in the upcoming IPL.
The IPL will resume from September 19 in the UAE and the players who will play in the lucrative league will certainly find it easy to hit the ground running the T20 World Cup as the mega tournament will also be played in the same conditions.
Apart from Maxwell, Australian players like David Warner (SunRisers Hyderabad), Steve Smith (Delhi Capitals), Josh Hazlewood (Chennai Super Kings), Marcus Stoinis (Delhi Capitals) will take part in IPL 2021.
Glenn Maxwell said while talking to ICC-Cricket.com, “The fact we’ve got a lot of guys going over for the IPL as a preparation, get a few games in those conditions, it’s going to do wonders for our batters.
Our bowlers are going to be up and firing by the time the tournament starts. I can assure you everyone is looking forward to hitting the ground running over there.”
Meanwhile, earlier the T20 World Cup was to be hosted in India but the tournament had to be shifted to UAE because of the Covid-19 threat in the country. Maxwell feels as the T20I showpiece will now be played in the UAE, it has leveled the playing field as there won’t be much home advantage.
“The tournament is in UAE probably levels the playing field a little bit. Probably makes it a little bit easier for there not to be as much of a home-ground advantage. For the IPL to be there to have a lot of international players that are potentially going to be in that World Cup over there playing, I think it has probably leveled the playing field a fair bit.”
On the other hand, Australia has had a difficult time in the T20I format in recent times as they have lost the last five series. Australia was beaten by 4-1 by West Indies and suffered the same series loss against Bangladesh.
Maxwell feels it will be imperative for the team to get the ball rolling in the marquee event.
“You look through our lineup, we’ve got a team full of match winners and guys that on their day can take the game away from the opposition. I think that’s what it’s going to take. Any day when it’s one of our players’ chance to go and win us a game – if we can take that (chance), it’s going to be hard for anyone to stop us.”
“The key for us to win a T20 World Cup this year is to get off to a fast start,” he said. “Teams that can get off to a good start early in the tournament, get a couple of players on fire, get a couple of batters in good form, and get a couple of bowlers taking early wickets, that is the key to a lot of teams winning these tournaments.”
