Australian Usman Khajawa: Knowledge of T20 World Cup pitches crucial

AUSTRALIAN top-order batsman Usman Khawaja believes pitch conditions at the nine venues in the Caribbean and USA will play a decisive role in determining the outcome of matches for the June 1-29 T20 World Cup.

Khawaja, 37, made the revelation on May 26, during an Amazon Prime activation at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy in Tarouba – the only venue in Trinidad which will feature four group C matches and one semi-final.

The left-handed batsman was announced as Prime Video’s official ambassador for broadcast of the T20 World Cup. However, he will not feature competitively for the Aussies at the upcoming showpiece event.

During his interaction with local media at the south facility, Khawaja said he does not believe each match would be a high-scoring affair because of the different types of wickets in each host country, including debutant hosts, the US.

Matches will be played in Dallas, Texas; Bridgetown, Barbados; Providence, Guyana; North Sound, Antigua; Lauderhill, Florida; Gros Islet, St Lucia; Kingstown, St Vincent, New York and at Tarouba.

Understanding the varying pitch conditions, he said, is key.

“What West Indies have shown in the past is that the wickets can be quite different depending on where you play. I’ve played on the Guyana wicket before and it’s not known to be a high-scoring ground and then you play in Barbados, where you get a nicer wicket.

“But as the tournament goes on, wickets can change too. You grow up watching the West Indies in the past and you think it’s going to be a rocket and fiery wicket, but that’s not the case. There’s a lot of spin in these wickets a lot of the time, and they’re slower, and they provide a lot of difference wickets than what you’d generally get in India.”

Khawaja said he’s a fan of the Republic Bank Caribbean Premier League despite never featuring for any franchise at the annual competition. He drew reference to the CPL, which utilises the majority of regional stadia, to show evidence that some of the Caribbean’s wickets are more pace-friendly, while others give slight advantage to spinners.

“In the past when I played cricket here it’s been more even in terms of batting and bowling. I think you can get some really good wickets. I’ve never played in the CPL but I’ve watched it a lot and even there you get a lot of low-scoring games, and I could only go on what I see. If they do produce batting wickets, great, I’m all for it, I’m a batsman. But I expect some of the matches to be lower scoring,” he added.

He sees his home team as favourites to lift the coveted crown and wants to see the Aussies aspire to become the first team to hold all three Men’s ICC trophies simultaneously, after winning the World Test Championship and ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in 2023.

However, he acknowledged the maroon threat and said their knowledge of their home pitches serves as an asset heading into the T20 World Cup.

“We’ve (Australia) proven that we’re always there and thereabout in the knockout tournaments. You talk about World Cups, we won the T20 tournament (2021) a couple years ago, and we’re always there. I expect Australia to be there again.

“I actually think the Windies have a great T20 team. They have exceptional T20 players. Maybe being at home might be something they relish off. Knowing the grounds, the wickets, the dimensions and having home crowd support actually I think they’re going to do really well. But then you have teams like England, India and Pakistan be there and thereabout. T20 is a very hard game to predict.”