Pace has been our primary weapon for success in the World T20 Championships here so far. The trio of Dirk Nannes, Shaun Tait and Mitchell Johnson have enjoyed the ball going through to the wicketkeeper head high at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.
The pitch at the Beausejour Stadium in St. Lucia will be different — slow with a bit of bounce. The fast bowlers need to change their length and pace to succeed on this wicket, but I am confident that they can still push batsmen on to the back foot. Although there are no plans to change the winning combination, we might introduce spin early depending on the conditions.
Early wickets are critical in T20 matches and we have been lucky that our bowlers have delivered in this regard. Skipper Michael Clarke and David Hussey’s off-spin can come in quite handy on this surface along with leg-spinner Steve Smith.
Our 20-year-old leg-spinner Steve Smith might be inexperienced at this level but he has had a very good tournament so far.
The T20 format, however is very unpredictable and guys like Chris Gayle have Plans B, C, D and E prepared.
We have reached the semifinals but that doesn’t mean we’ll back down on our intensity. The big win over Sri Lanka was quite unexpected considering the way they have played in the event so far. We were in a bit of trouble early on, but Cameron White and Michael Hussey showed the amount of depth in our batting.
Teams tend to go hard early in T20s and if that doesn’t click you are in trouble of getting bowled out cheaply. That’s what happened to the Lankans which doesn’t mean they are a bad team.
The West Indies thrashed us in the 2009 T20 Worlds with Gayle leading the onslaught. We returned the favour by beating them soundly back home in a T20 game.
It will be crucial to get the Windies skipper out of the way quickly. Over the years we have realised that if Gayle goes early the pressure on the other batsmen increases substantially — something a Ramnaresh Sarwan or a Dwayne Bravo have failed to handle. The Australian payback will be to get Gayle out cheaply.
We are aware that the match will be keenly watched in India. Their fortunes are hanging on this game but we are only focused on what we need to do. All we want to do is win, win and win and not lose our momentum ahead of the semifinals.