Mitchell Starc is hoping the Australian men’s T20 World Cup squad will display the same self-belief he has witnessed first hand within the national women’s camp.
Starc accompanied his wife, Alyssa Healy, during the recent women’s series against India before joining the men’s squad in Dubai and believes elite male and female players would benefit from greater interaction.
“Certainly Alyssa and I have [spoken about it], I think both of our squads have the ability to start interacting a bit more and learning from one another,” Starc said.
“Alyssa keeps reminding me they’ve won how many bloody World Cups they have, I think it's six T20 World Cups now or something like that, or five and a couple of One-Dayers.
“But they're a hugely experienced team in some aspects and then they’ve got inexperience coming in who can win games for their team from the get go, as we saw with, for example, Tahlia McGrath against India not too many days ago.
“So yeah, they're a team that finds ways to win from almost any position.
“Even when they're not playing their best cricket they find ways to win and they're a fantastic group of people off the field.”
Starc is a familiar figure around the women’s team, taking every opportunity to spend time with Healy around often conflicting schedules.
He continued his own World Cup preparation in Queensland during the India series and was on hand to help in the nets or at fielding training.
He also presented Stella Campbell with her Baggy Green ahead of her Test debut and bought her a set of long spikes to wear during the rain-affected day-night Test.
While he stressed that he wasn’t there in any coaching capacity and didn’t sit in on team meetings, Starc gleaned enough to believe the Australian men’s side could gain as much from any collaboration as Meg Lanning’s side would.
“They're a really, really close unit that just have the outlook of they can win from anywhere, whether you've played one game or 250 games like Pez [Ellyse Perry] has,” Starc said.
“So, not to say that our group don't do that, but just I think in time to come both groups can learn from one another on and off the field and just collaborate a bit better and see what the differences are there in terms of the preparation or the playing or, I guess, the outlook of games going forward.
“Their record speaks for themselves that they win games, home and away, they won 26 One-Day games in a row, they've won T20 World Cups so yeah, I just think the collaboration can be better between certainly two strong Australian teams going forward.”
Australia’s men are seeking their first T20 World Cup trophy and their preparation for the tournament has hardly been ideal.
Seven players pulled out of the winter series against West Indies and Bangladesh, both of which Australia lost, and some of Australia’s biggest names have had little match time in the IPL.
Others, such as Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood, have had more experience of the UAE conditions and possibly worn wickets that Australia will have to contend with.
Starc and Hazlewood both played in the Caribbean and Bangladesh, but the team that lines up against South Africa for Australia’s first match in the group stage will bear only a passing resemblance to those that took to the field in St Lucia or Dhaka.
“Certainly in terms of the T20 game it would have been fantastic if we’d had a full strength squad for the West Indies and Bangladesh leading into the World Cup,” Starc said.
“But then you have guys preparing for this through the IPL which has been fantastic for the guys like Maxi and Joshy who have played some really good cricket the last few weeks.”
But, apart from the difficulties caused by a world still in the grip of a pandemic, Starc believes cricket’s increasingly bloated scheduling makes it almost impossible to have an ideal build up to a World Cup.
“We’ve got another T20 World Cup in twelve months,” said Starc. “So you throw in the fact that you’ve got a number of guys that play three formats.
“Nowadays, with schedules, it's near impossible to play every single game of cricket through a calendar year.
“Personally, Test cricket is still the pinnacle for me, I'm not giving up Test matches to play other formats.
“So there's no quick fix. There’s so much cricket these days with three formats, I guess you throw in four formats now when you play in The Hundred in England.
“For me it's always been about playing as much for Australia as I can and then the franchise cricket’s a bonus.
“So I can't speak on behalf of others but, for me, I'm trying to play as much good cricket for Australia as I can for as long as my body will allow me to."
The players started training together after six days in hard quarantine and have less than a week until their first match against South Africa on Saturday.
“Our first training run yesterday was fantastic,” Starc said. “A few hours out there having a net session and geting our arm around, a great vibe, was pretty chilled, a lot of smiles, so great start with a tournament in that aspect.
“It's important to not only start well but you almost have to play some of your best cricket from the get go whereas tournaments like the World Cup where you're playing nine games in the group stage, not that you have room to lose games but you do have a little bit more time, whereas the T20 format of the World Cup you need to be winning games and playing good cricket from the get go.
“So it's important for us to to start well in South Africa and hopefully carry that through the tournament.”
