Big teams and early title favourites India and South Africa have fallen by the wayside. It is quite natural that a lot of talk is now focussed on the reasons for their debacle.
The Indian Premier League is proving to be the first scapegoat. It is tough to say whether the IPL late-night parties contributed to the players’ tiredness but in my opinion this is just an excuse. IPL-3 featured lots of players from Australia, England and Sri Lanka and they have shown no signs of exhaustion.
If we talk about physical fitness that is what we are paid to maintain and survive a tough international calendar. We have great support staff who take care of us and that’s why someone like Shane Watson, who is playing around the year, is still going strong.
India coach Gary Kirsten was right to question the fitness of the players instead of the IPL.
The Australian team however is solely focussed on the semifinal against Pakistan on Friday. We have won all our matches convincingly and our confidence is sky-high.
I believe we have a side that can adapt to any condition which comes from our experience on varied surfaces back home. Our pacers have been brilliant throughout the tournament supported well by leg-spinner Steve Smith and part-time spinners David Hussey and Michael Clarke.
In spite of all our success, we are still trying to achieve more consistency in our batting. We want to avoid losing two or three wickets in a row. If we can do that the team can surely post a total of above 200 with the kind of depth we have in our batting.
But any team on their day can be dangerous in T20 cricket. Pakistan are also a very temperamental side and we can never take them for granted considering they are the defending champions.
The pitch in St. Lucia might be a bit on the slower side but there is not enough turn in it. We are confident that if we play at our best we can thwart anything Pakistan throw at us.