T20 World Cup 2021: Australia's Top Order Has To Fire, They Have To Get Runs – Brett Lee

Legendary Aussie fast bowler Brett Lee has stated that it’s important for Australia’s top-order batting unit to fire in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 if they want to succeed in the tournament.

Australia faced a crushing group stage defeat at the hands of England in the last game, and they will be looking forward to bouncing back strong so that they can make it to the semi-finals round. Talking about the match, England bundled Australia at the score of 125, and they completed the chase in 11.4 overs to win the game by 8 wickets.

Currently, Australia have 4 points from three games, and they have to win the upcoming games to qualify for the semi-finals. Temba Bavuma-led South Africa are the biggest threat for Australia as they have 6 points under their belt with a better net run rate.

Meanwhile, Brett Lee opined that England were outstanding in the game against Australia and the Aaron Finch-led side ” let themselves down”.

“England were outstanding against Australia. The 50-over World champions were just too good in the end, it’s as simple as that. Parts of the game were outstanding for Australia but in other parts, they probably let themselves down,” Lee wrote in his column for the ICC’s official website.

Lee added that he tries to look at the positives and suggested the Australian team to relax. He elaborated:

“Now it’s not all doom and gloom for Australia – I try and look at things from a positive point of view. There are a lot of people saying, ‘he shouldn’t be in the team’, ‘he shouldn’t be batting there’ and so on. “But they say in Hindi, ‘aaram se, aaram se’, and that means to relax and go about things patiently. I think that’s a really good expression that the team can use just to relax,” 

Everything Will Be Okay – Brett Lee

The 44-year-old believes that Australia might make changes in the team, but in the end, everything will be fine. He said:

“Everything will be okay. I know that there could be changes, they might look to shuffle the order, they might look to some different bowling options but sometimes you just get outplayed and England outplayed Australia.”

Brett Lee further added that Australia’s top order has to fire, they have to get runs from guys like Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, and Matthew Wade needs to provide a good finish to the team. He asserted:

“‘The top order has to fire, they have to get runs from guys like Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, who has been in good form the first two games but missed out with a duck against England and that’s part of the game. Matthew Wade has been getting a few runs, getting some starts but Australia need a big 40 or 50 from him to finish so there are areas where Australia can take some positives out,” 

Lee also stated that Australia openers David Warner and Aaron Finch can try a slightly different approach in the next few World Cup games. Brett Lee said:

“I know the Aussies want to get off to a flyer, I heard Warner say it, I heard it from Aaron Finch and they are two brilliant players, two guys I’d pick in my side every single day of the week.

“Maybe it’s about taking the foot off the accelerator a fraction at the top. I know that some teams go really hard in the first six but other teams don’t take as many risks so perhaps Australia can do that but I’ll still back Warner every day of the week to go downtown first ball if he has to,”

Talking about the Australian bowling performance in the match against England, Brett Lee stated:

 “They probably didn’t get the right line or length against England and in this format there are days where the batsmen miss out and the bowlers defend. But when collectively you don’t have your best game, you can see what happens.”

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