The Australians had an extremely rough cricketing season following the infamous sandpaper gate. However, they managed to get back on the track months ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. After all, they are the defending world champions and with Steve Smith and David Warner back in the den, they would put all their efforts to forget those crucial times.
The Australian cricket team has already arrived in England for the showpiece event. Before getting into the main battles, spinner Adam Zampa is pretty confident about his pairing with Nathan Lyon.
“I think it was a few months ago where we actually spoke to each other and said, 'I reckon we can play a huge role coming up in the World Cup together so let's do everything we can to make sure we're both there',” Zampa told reporters.
“We play two different roles. (Lyon) is so accurate, a beautiful off-spinner, bowls to his field really well and bowls really tight. That means I can attack from the other end.”
Zampa reckons taking wickets in the middle over will be key and said skipper Aaron Finch has backed them to go for wickets.
“That is something we have spoken about, and Finchy is big on, trying to take wickets. If you are bowling to the middle and lower order in the last 10 overs it makes it so much easier for the fast bowlers at the death,” he said.
In their opening World Cup clash on June 1, the five-time champions will take on a spin-heavy Afghanistan team, which has one of the best current spinners Rashid Khan in its ranks. Zampa had shared a net session with Rashid earlier in the year and he said he will pass on some of his secrets to the Aussie batsmen.
“I am so glad I did that because I now know I could never bowl like Rashid. But having that information now means I can give it to our batters. Rashid Khan is a once in a lifetime bowler,” he said.