Oman captain Aqib Ilyas has boldly declared that Australia’s top-order is vulnerable against spin bowlers on slow decks ahead of Thursday’s T20 World Cup contest in Bridgetown.

Australia gets its T20 World Cup campaign underway by facing Oman in the Barbados capital for the first of four group-stage matches. The two sides have never met in the international arena, while Oman has only defeated one Test-playing nation in the T20 format — Ireland.

Despite the daunting task ahead, Ilyas is confident that Oman’s tweakers can exploit Australia’s obsession with six-hitting on the dry Kensington Oval wicket. Earlier this week, Oman suffered an agonising Super Over loss to Namibia in a low-scoring contest at the same venue, where slow bowlers have proven effective.

“You see the last match, how the ball was turning and staying low,” Ilyas told reporters on Tuesday.

“(Australia) used to have a few players with good techniques in the past like Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, but I don’t think they have many now.

“They look to hit big. They only try to go for sixes.

“If we get the same wicket (as the one against Namibia), maybe it could be a problem for them.

“On a slower track with good quality spinners, the only thing we need to do is play with a big heart and put the ball in the right areas, because the ball doesn’t know how big (a reputation) the batter (has). If it turns a bit or it stays low, the batter is in trouble.”

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Oman, ranked 19th in the T20 format, is competing during the main stage of a World Cup for the first time.

“The boys are really pumped up,” Ilyas continued.

“We don’t have much to lose. Every time there is a World Cup, there is an upset … anything can happen.

“We respect (Australia) a lot as a team … but before the game, it’s important to not get overawed by them.

“After the game, of course there are great players in their side and we can learn a lot from them. But maybe even they might be able to learn something from us.

“Once you step into the field, there is no big name, there is no one bigger than you at the field.

“It’s another game for us and we don’t think that we are going to play someone extraordinary.”

Australia, who won the T20 World Cup in 2021, will face Oman on Thursday morning at 10.30am AEST.

OH CAPTAIN, MY CAPTAIN

Nearly six years after he was booed by the MCG crowd during the 2018 Boxing Day Test, Mitchell Marsh will join an illustrious list of Australians to lead their country at a World Cup.

After captaining Australia during white-ball tours of South Africa and New Zealand, the 32-year-old was officially appointed as the permanent men’s T20I skipper in April, capping off a remarkable 12 months for the West Australian.

Once the ridiculed team larrikin, Marsh will take charge of an experienced Australian outfit for this month’s T20 World Cup campaign in the West Indies and United States.

The all-rounder, a central figure during Australia’s triumphant 2021 T20 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates, is renowned for his lighthearted nature around the national set-up, personifying the relaxed team environment that’s been created since Justin Langer’s departure as head coach in early 2022.

“What people love about Mitch is he actually just cares about people,” teammate Ashton Agar said this week.

“When you talk to Mitch, you feel like he’s listening. He looks you in the eye, he’s fun to be around. And he makes you feel something. He makes you feel valued and feel like you were heard and I think that’s a really important thing.

“Obviously, as a captain, you have to be competent as well, and he’s arguably the best player in the side. So that’s really important too.”

Marsh, who captained Australia during the 2010 Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, will also receive support from Pat Cummins, who has led Australia in the two other formats with tremendous success.

“Mitchy is a legend,” Cummins said of Marsh.

“As a cricketer he’s dealt with so many setbacks, be it selection or injuries. But he’s the first guy you want in your team – great fun, great energy.

“He brings us together, cares for everyone. He makes us all walk a bit taller.”

AUSTRALIA’S LONE SELECTION QUANDARY

Australia’s first-choice side is all but set in stone, but the Kensington Oval deck could push one of the team’s star quicks out of the starting XI.

Spin is expected to feature prominently at the Bridgetown venue where Australia will play its opening two T20 World Cup fixtures, so the national selection panel could be tempted to slot spinner Ashton Agar into the starting XI at the expense of either Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins or Josh Hazlewood.

Agar, who hasn’t played a T20I since October 2022, boasts a superb record in the game’s shortest format, taking 48 T20I wickets at 22.35 with an economy rate of just 6.47, but it could be difficult to justify changing up the bowling attack that won a World Cup in India last year.

Speaking to reporters earlier this week, Australian captain Mitchell Marsh confirmed selection would be “conditions-based”, hinting that Agar could feature in Thursday’s tournament opener against Oman.

“We will be pretty flexible around that,” Marsh said.

“The big three have been really special for us over a long period of time and if we feel the conditions suit a team where that’s our best team, it’s a pretty easy decision for us.

“But we have a squad of 15 here and we have a lot of bases covered, so I’m pretty excited by whatever conditions we come up against. We can pick a really strong team.”

Cummins, who has never played an international match in the West Indies, would be the most likely candidate to make way for Agar, but the New South Welshman is coming off a successful campaign with the Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League, taking 18 wickets at 31.44.

“Probably as well as I have for the last ten years really,” Cummins told cricket.com.au of his T20 bowling this week.

“For the most part, international T20s are after the Test series, and you’ve got to try and hit a yorker or a slower ball, and then go back to a Test series.

“So just getting the pace of the game and executing some of those balls that you need more in T20 cricket than in other formats, I feel really well placed.”

VETERANS’ WOEFUL FRANCHISE FORM

Australian veterans David Warner and Glenn Maxwell will be desperate to rediscover their destructive best after woeful Indian Premier League campaigns in the subcontinent.

Warner will wrap up his international career this month, with the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and United States poised to be his final assignment in Australian colours.

However, the 37-year-old enters the marquee tournament having been dropped by Dehli Capitals coach Ricky Ponting during the recent IPL, where he notched 168 runs at 21.00 with one fifty in eight knocks.

The left-hander was overshadowed by Capitals teammate Jake Fraser-McGurk, who pressed his case for T20 World Cup selection by blasting 330 runs at 36.66 with an absurd strike rate of 234.04.

However, Australian selectors resisted the temptation of parachuting Fraser-McGurk into the T20 World Cup squad, instead naming the young Victorian as a travelling reserve. Warner, Australia’s leading run-scorer in T20Is at Kensington Oval with 157 runs at 31.40, will therefore be under pressure to repay the selectors’ faith.

Meanwhile, Maxwell’s endured a horror run of form during this year’s IPL, accumulating just 52 runs at 5.77 in ten matches for the Royal Challengers Bangalore. The 35-year-old requested for himself to be dropped during the tournament, acknowledging he “wasn’t contributing in a positive way” to the franchise.

However, Cummins brushed aside concerns about Warner and Maxwell ahead of Thursday’s match against Oman despite their underwhelming franchise form.

“They’re two guys who get written off a lot and always show up and prove a lot of people wrong,” Cummins said, as reported by News Corp.

“I think if they were coming into their first ever tournament you’d be hoping that they’d find some form quickly. But those two guys being just about our two best ever T20 players for Australia – they’ve done it in big moments before.

“There’s no worries about them. Getting to a new country, putting on a different jersey sometimes helps. I’m expecting a big tournament from those two.”

HISTORY ON THE LINE AFTER LEGACY-DEFINING 12 MONTHS

This Australian team has been plagued by discussion and debate about its legacy over the past 18 months, but the national side has been handed another opportunity to cement its place in cricket history.

No men’s team has concurrently possessed the major ICC trophies across all three formats, and Australia will become the first if they win the T20 World Cup in the West Indies and United States.

Pat Cummins and his teammates lifted the World Test Championship mace and World Cup trophy last year, also retaining the coveted Ashes urn during a legacy-defining 12 months — adding the T20 World Cup to their trophy cabinet would ensure this team is remembered as one of the greatest in the modern era.

This year’s T20 World Cup could also prove the final ICC tournament for several of Australia’s veteran players — Warner has already confirmed his retirement, while Matthew Wade and Marcus Stoinis are also nearing the end of their international careers.

Meanwhile, the pace trio of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood will no doubt be questioning their future in white-ball internationals after the tournament’s conclusion.

“I wouldn’t have thought I’d be around for the (2027) World Cup, so I at some point will naturally fall off and someone like a Spencer (Johnson) will come in and probably take my place,” Starc told Fox Cricket last year.

“Things might change a lot or a little bit after the (2024) T20 World Cup, in terms of the white-ball set-up for Australia.”