Christmas will come early this weekend for diehard cricket fans, or those disillusioned with their underwhelming footy teams, with Australia kicking off the summer season – in winter.
Sunday’s first ODI against Zimbabwe in Townsville marks the official start of the men’s season, which includes a whopping five white ball series at home, one away, a T20 World Cup back in Australia, and two Test series against the West Indies and South Africa.
As such, we will see plenty of Australia’s male cricketers in the coming months, even if Sunday’s occasion is a rare sight.
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Australia has only played 14 ODIs in the past 24 months, and has only hosted one completed 50-over series at home since January 2019.
The hosts have not played Zimbabwe in any format since two away T20s in 2018, not in ODI cricket since 2014, while it’s the nation’s first trip down under since 2004.
Meanwhile, it’s Australia’s first international in either north Queensland or the Top End since playing Bangladesh in Darwin in September 2008.
Needless to say, there’s little about this series that fits the norm – it will almost come as a shock to the senses.
But there’s an important job to be done, and it’s not just about claiming a series win.
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For captain Aaron Finch, there is already a focus on the 2023 World Cup in India, where Australia will eye redemption having been humbled by England in the semi final of the 2019 edition.
He suggested that Australia could use the upcoming tidal wave of white ball games to experiment with its XI and find different combinations to win games of cricket in preparation for the World Cup.
“I think every game that we play is with one eye towards the World Cup in ’23,” Finch told foxsports.com.au in Townsville on Thursday. “I don’t think the conditions matter when you’re looking to structure up your team a couple of different ways.
“So we’ll see over the next little while. There might be times when we go in with four bowlers, there might be times when we go in with three bowlers and a heap of all-rounders. We might go in with five specialist bowlers … whether you play two spinners and an all-rounder. There’s just so many different ways that we can play.
“We just want to make sure we’re not pigeonholing ourselves into one style of play and one way of playing.”
He added: “When it comes to the subcontinent, playing in India, depending if you’re north or south, or east or west, you can have totally different conditions. So you have to be able to build a really flexible unit that’s tried and tested.
“Because you get a feel for how the team functions depending on how you structure up as well, so I think that’s really important.”
Any experimentation is not to say that Australia will be taking its opponent lightly despite the lack of household names.
For starters, Australia is in Townsville with a bumper squad, including the likes of David Warner, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Starc, Mitch Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa. The only major absentee is Pat Cummins, who is being managed.
Australia will do the majority of its homework on Friday and Saturday, but its players are already well aware of the potential Zimbabwe has to cause a boilover.
This week, Zimbabwe gave India a major scare in Harare when it restricted KL Rahul’s side to 8-289. In reply, Zimbabwe needed 16 runs from the final two overs but couldn’t pull it off, losing its final two wickets to fall only 13 runs short.
Earlier this month, the nation toppled world No.7 Bangladesh in a three-match series.
“I know not just their bowling attack, but they’ve got some very dangerous players across the board,” Marsh told foxsports.com.au.
“They took it up to India, so there’s certainly not one element of us taking them lightly.
“We’ve got meetings over the next few days and we’ll make sure we do our homework and be as prepared as we would normally.
“I think it’s really important for the group now to come out, no matter who we play, we’re representing Australia and we have our own way we want to go about it. We’ll focus on what we need to focus on and hopefully start the summer with a few wins.”
‘IT’S SPECIAL’
Finch and Marsh also addressed the debate around the future of ODI cricket amid a schedule squeeze created by the increasing number of international and franchise T20s.
The ICC has already moved to quash fears about the 50-over format by including a full suite of ODI series, and reviving the Champions Trophy, in the Future Tours Program for 2023 to 2027.
Finch said that the ODI format remains important to him and dismissed the debate, noting that even the futures of T20s and Test cricket are no strangers to scrutiny.
“One-day cricket is special,” he said. “It was probably our first look at modern cricket, in terms of World Series Cricket, and the way the game has moved forward is on the back of one-day cricket.
“It’s like anything; when there’s a World Cup in another format coming up – the World Test Championship and Test cricket is strong – naturally the chatter is going to be around the sustainability of three formats.
“And if you look back a couple years, the same conversation was happening about T20 cricket. So I don’t think there’s a huge amount to read into it. It’s a great game to play.”
Marsh added: “I don’t pay much attention to all the chat around that.
“I understand, as someone who still plays the game, I have a role to play to keep the game growing and to keep it alive. Our sole focus as a group is building towards the World Cup next year; it’s going to be incredibly exciting.
“I think sometimes it takes a World Cup like that to let everyone know the ODI game is still kicking.
“We’re faced with a lot of T20 cricket this year and it’s only going to get bigger, but I certainly stay out of all the debates and just play on.”
Australia’s three-match ODI series against Zimbabwe starts on Sunday at 9.40am (AEST).
