Mitch Marsh isn’t expecting any surprises in the conditions his side will face in Sri Lanka as Australia brace for another trial by spin in their T20 World Cup group matches.
After being spun out by Pakistan on a ragging Lahore pitch in a World Cup lead-up series, Australia are set to face a similar challenge in their first four matches of the ICC’s T20 showpiece.
Missing several members of their World Cup squad – Nathan Ellis, Tim David and Glenn Maxwell who weren’t part of the tour, while Josh Inglis and Marcus Stoinis only played one match – Marsh’s side slumped to respective defeats of 22, 90 and 111 runs across a dreadful four days in Pakistan. The final two of those losses are among Australia’s top three heaviest defeats in the format.
Such was the surface that greeted them in the second T20 that the hosts bowled just one over of pace for the match, while their spinners accounted for 22 of their 28 wickets taken and 38.4 of their 52.3 overs bowled across the three matches.
Ireland, who Australia will face in their opening Group B encounter on Wednesday (8:30pm AEDT), have also loaded up on spin for the World Cup, sending down 13 overs of slow stuff in their first match of the tournament.
Ireland’s third seamer (allrounder Curtis Campher) didn’t even bowl as they went down to co-hosts Sri Lanka by 20 runs at R. Premadasa Stadium on Sunday night, the same venue where they will face Australia.
But Marsh is adamant Australia have put the Pakistan series behind them and that his batters, strengthened by the returns of David and Maxwell for the World Cup – both renowned players of spin – are up to the task.
“We were outplayed by Pakistan,” Marsh said in Colombo on the eve of Australia’s first T20 World Cup match.
“We’ve left it there and we’re ready to move on.
“We had some young guys that got exposed to those conditions for probably the first time in their career and we take the lessons (from that) and we move on.
“We obviously welcome some experienced guys back into our group for this tournament, so we’ve certainly parked that (tour) and we look forward to the World Cup.
“We do have a lot of power in our (batting) unit, but we’ve also got a lot of skill and a lot of experience from one to seven.
“(We’ll) just play what’s in front of us and adapt to the conditions … whatever’s thrown at us.”
Australia also have plenty of spin options in their arsenal this tournament with Adam Zampa to be supported by left-armers Matthew Kuhnemann and Cooper Connolly, with fellow allrounder Maxwell and even Matthew Rensahw able to provide more overs if desired.
Zampa in particular looms as a key weapon in Sri Lanka where, according to stats provider Opta, leg-spinners take a wicket more regularly (strike rate 16.9) and concede fewer runs (economy rate 6.7) than any other type of bowling in T20 internationals.
All Group B matches, which also includes Zimbabwe and Oman alongside Australia, Ireland and Sri Lanka, will be played across three venues in the island nation. Australia will then shift to India, where pitches are traditionally flatter in T20 cricket, for their three Super Eight encounters, should they qualify.
That has indeed been evident during the opening six days of the tournament, with the average first innings score in the eight matches played in India 182, while in Sri Lanka it is 151 from the four matches at the two Colombo venues used so far.
Interestingly, the average first-innings score across both countries at this stage of the tournament is closer to that of all men’s T20 internationals, bucking the lower-scoring trend traditionally seen in World Cup matches.
Marsh said he wasn’t surprised to see Sri Lanka and Ireland combine for 25 overs of spin during the first match at Premadasa Stadium.
“I didn’t think that wicket turned a lot, but we certainly know the conditions that we’re going to be faced with,” he said.
“I don’t think we’re alone there; I think most teams will be leaning on their spinners.
“And most teams will have similar ideas on how they’re going to go about it, so we’re prepared for that.
“But we’ve seen over time that pace bowlers still play a big role in the way we shape up.”
Naturally, spin bowlers play a bigger role in the T20 format in both India and Sri Lanka than what they do in Australia, where fewer than 30 per cent of the wickets in international matches have been taken by spinners (compared to 33 per cent in India and 41 per cent in Sri Lanka).
But in Sri Lanka their impact is more profound, with spinners operating at an economy rate almost one-and-a-half runs fewer than their pace bowling counterparts and averaging almost four runs less per wicket. In India, the difference in economy rate is only 0.8 in favour of spin, with the bowling averages roughly the same.
Spin’s influence is even more dramatic when domestic men’s T20s from the past five years in Sri Lanka are included, accounting for half of the overs bowled and almost 45 per cent of wickets taken at the three 2026 World Cup venues.
“We speak about it a lot and obviously the wickets are a lot slower here,” Australian wicketkeeper Josh Inglis said on cricket.com.au’s Unplayable Podcast in an episode released today.
“And it’s not necessarily the ball that always spins big that gets you out or can be challenging, it’s the inconsistency of it.
“Quite often it’s the ball that skids on, (which) always feels like it gathers pace off the wicket, (that’s dangerous).
“You’ve just got to be really well-planned and prepared to know where your scoring areas are and how you are going to score runs here.”
It’s been rare for Australia to play two specialist spinners in their white-ball sides ever since they famously won the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE by picking three frontline quicks (Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins) alongside Zampa. Left-arm spinner Ashton Agar was part of the squad in 2021 but lost his place in the side due to a pre-tournament strategy shift.
Excluding allrounders such as Connolly, Australia has only lined up with dual spinners three times since the previous T20 World Cup in 2024 – Kuhnemann’s first match in July last year and twice last month against Pakistan.
But the team’s hierarchy has been priming the Queenslander for this tournament since he made his T20I debut in Jamaica, with the 29-year-old part of the squad for the subsequent series against South Africa, New Zealand, India and Pakistan despite only playing five of 19 matches in the past seven months.
“It’s not something that traditionally happens in the conditions that we face, but we’ve played with two spinners over the past 12 months a few times and we’ve seen that Matt Kuhnemann certainly belongs at this level,” Marsh said.
“If we go that way (in the tournament), it will certainly be no surprise to us and something that we’ve become accustomed to over the past 12 months.
“In these conditions it’s just about being really clear on how you’re going to go about it and playing what’s in front of you. The word adaptability has been thrown around in our team meetings so far and (we’ll) adapt to whatever situation is put in front of us to get the job done.”
2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup
Australia squad: Mitch Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: Sean Abbott
Australia’s Group Stage fixtures
February 11: v Ireland, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo (8:30pm AEDT)
February 13: v Zimbabwe, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo (4:30pm AEDT)
February 16: v Sri Lanka, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 17, 12:30am AEDT)
February 20: v Oman, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 21, 12:30am AEDT)
Australia’s Super Eight fixtures
(Assuming all seeded teams qualify)
February 23: Australia (X2) v West Indies (X3), Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (Feb 24, 12:30am AEDT)
February 26: India (X1) v Australia (X2), MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (Feb 27, 12:30am AEDT)
March 1: Australia (X2) v South Africa (X4), Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, 8:30pm AEDT
Click here for the full tournament schedule
All matches will be broadcast on Amazon’s Prime Video
