There’s a common lamentation or celebration - depending on personal preference - that the rise of T20 cricket has been at the expense of the more traditional Test format.
And yet, while that may be true in regards to domestic T20 competitions, the place of T20 internationals is more difficult to pinpoint. While tournaments like the IPL, the Big Bash and the CPL have crammed into the international schedule, T20Is arguably have little context beyond broadcasting and crowd revenue raisers.
Except, of course, in a T20 World Cup year. So it is that Australia will play ten T20 matches in the lead up to the ICC tournament in October, five in the Caribbean and five in Bangladesh.
Mitchell Starc is a prime example of Australia’s T20I stuttered approach.
Despite his status as one of Australia’s most potent white ball fast bowlers, he last played in a T20 World Cup in 2014 - he was not selected for the 2016 tournament in India - and he has played just thirteen T20Is since 2016.
“I'd don’t think I’ve played ten T20s In the last sort of four years, let alone in the space of a couple of weeks so, yeah, personally it'd be nice to get a bit of the rhythm of T20 cricket ahead of the World Cup,” said Starc, speaking from the team hotel in St Lucia.
“Certainly for a few guys who may have been working on some things, whether it be the back end of last year, or through BBL, it's a nice opportunity to put those things on show in, I guess, conditions that might be pretty similar to what we'll face in the T20 World Cup.”
Seven players who took part in this year’s ill-fated IPL withdrew from Australia’s winter tour after extended periods in quarantine and bio-secure bubbles and it is unclear which, if any, of those players will opt to join their franchises for the remainder of the tournament when it resumes ahead of the World Cup.
Chair of Selectors Trevor Hohns has said Cricket Australia expects players to prioritise national duty over the IPL in the coming months. Such a choice is not an issue for Starc, who has not entered the IPL in recent years.
“One of the reasons over the last few years I haven't been going to the IPL is to have that time to refresh and be the best that I can for Australia,” said Starc.
“I can't speak for other people but that's certainly how I've approached it, spending time with family. Obviously, Alyssa [Healy, Starc’s wife] and I both have conflicting schedules and it's probably some of the only time we get to spend together at home and see our family.
"So that's how I've approached it and wanting to play as much as I can across the formats for Australia, first and foremost, so everyone's going to be in a different boat.”
Australia has never won a T20 World Cup and captain Aaron Finch has made it clear he expects to have all his first-choice players available for the tournament.
But there will be a tight turnaround between the ICC competition and the start of the Test summer for multi-format players, particularly if Australia makes it through to the World Cup final, on November 14th.
The standalone Test against Afghanistan starts on November 27th followed by the first Ashes Test on December 8th. It is likely that several players will start the Ashes not having played any competitive red-ball cricket since last summer’s Sheffield Shield.
“I guess, from experiences gone by, there's been some really tight turnarounds between whether it be white-ball tournaments or white ball series into Test match series or away tours where we've had to improvise and make sure we get a little bit of red-ball bowling in around white ball preparation,” Starc said. “So it wouldn't be the first time.
“Certainly, in summers gone by, where we haven't had tour games or warm-up games or shield games before we started Test series, so it's not something that's foreign or new to the group. Obviously, it throws up another hurdle with quarantining after a World Cup and the tight turnaround with what we might be faced with.
“But, for the multi-format players, we've all played cricket for quite a while now and have probably experienced the same situation in slightly different circumstances before so no doubt we'll all be preparing for what's coming first and foremost and with a little bit of an eye on the summer as well and being ready to go for red-ball cricket.”
In the meantime, Starc will be refining his own role under Finch. The St Lucia pitch is expected to be slow and all five T20s are being played at the Daren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, providing conditions that may be similar to World Cup host venues in the UAE and Oman.
If there is a lack of pace and swing it will provide an opportunity for Starc to hone the variations that may be needed on spin-friendly pitches.
“It's preparing for shorter spells, more of a focus on staying unpredictable or variations and those guys who have a lot of variations in the balls that they bowl and whatnot. Probably putting that into play a lot more at training.
"I don't change a whole lot in my preparation across the formats but certainly there’s going to be a lot more planning and focus on how, tactically, we're going to take on the series against the West Indies.
“It's a great preparation for the World Cup, it's a good chance to try a few things. We'll obviously want to try and win the series but it's also a chance to put a few things in place that we might want to, some combinations or whatnot for the World Cup, so it's going to be a really exciting series.”
