Healy: We’re outsiders, but Aussies can win T20 World Cup

The alarm bells are ringing for Australia’s T20 cricket team after their 3-0 series loss in Pakistan, but this team has been built for this job since the failure of 2024.

In that World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean, they exited in the Super 8 stage of the tournament.

Since then, they've done well. Winning most of their series in that two-year period.  

They were victorious in the 2021 version of the tournament, which was Mitch Marsh’s finest hour.

We have to really realise this year just how much hard work went into those performances in 2021 when the likes of Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade got us over the line.

Now the team includes guys like Travis Head, Matt Renshaw, Cam Green, Josh Inglis and Tim David. They have to be very good, if not better, if they want to emulate those deeds.

I was happy to hear this week that Mitch Marsh is comfortable with his team's ability to play spin, and they’ll need that given this tournament is held in Sri Lanka and India.

But let’s see just how ‘alien’ the conditions - as Adam Zampa calls them - will be. 

I just hope that Tim David (hamstring), Josh Hazlewood (Achilles) and Nathan Ellis (quad) haven’t run out of time to get some learning in these conditions, hopefully they can acclimatise quickly.

This tournament will host 20 teams, with four pools of five teams for about two weeks. 

The top two from each of those pools go through to the playoffs and Australia should be one of them coming up against Ireland, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka and Oman.

Now, detractors think the Australians aren't that good with spin and playing it, and I’m putting pressure on how we bowl our own spin as well. It’s not just a walk-up start and you win a World Cup. 

I'd like to see Tim David and Glenn Maxwell bat as much as possible in a shifting role.

If there's a bit of a partnership that's established at the top order, between let’s say Mitch Marsh and Travis Head, we can say, ‘Right, Glenn Maxwell or Tim David, you're in next’. Batting orders can be totally fluid here.

If we need to chase down a total of 140, which means we've bowled well or the wicket's difficult, that's when Renshaw, Inglis, and probably Marcus Stoinis have to do some batting with some traditional strokes and hard running between the wickets.

We're capable, but big outsiders in these conditions, especially against India who have a team that is stacked full of everything. 

We have got our hands full, and we're outsiders, but let's go. 

My message to the Aussie team. You’ve been built for this, you can do it.