Are Australia the team to beat in this year’s World Twenty20?

In March, the world’s top cricket nations will travel to India as they seek to be crowned as the ICC World Twenty20 champions for 2016. In 2014, Sri Lanka won their maiden title as they beat fellow finalists India by six wickets to lift the trophy for the very first time. As of January 15th, the defending champions are ranked as the best team on the planet but Australia will fancy their chances of success in the short form of the game.

Australia are in the middle of a five-match One Day International series with India and they have won both of the opening two matches. If they are to get their hands on the Twenty20 World Cup for the first time, they will need to emulate their current form in March and April.

There’s absolutely no reason why the Aussies cannot win this year’s competition. While the Wallabies struggled to show their talents during the Ashes, their form in the short game has really picked up in recent times. Australia will already know important lessons about the pitches and climate out in India and many of the players in their current squad will have experienced the difficult conditions out there.

At the moment, Australia are one of the leading candidates with most bookmakers to win the competition and they will need all of their talented stars to be on-song if they are to beat hosts India – who incidentally have been paired up with Australia in the group stages.

If Australia were to claim the Twenty20 World Cup, there would be huge celebrations across the country. As many are aware, cricket is one of Australia’s most popular sports and fans from all over the nation would travel to one of the major cities for huge parties.

In fact, the national team were out celebrating themselves after they thrashed England in December 2013 in the most recent Ashes series to be played Down Under. Australia were out celebrating in casinos around Perth after they secured the series victory. They will likely have been playing on the likes of Fox pokies and various forms of roulette that you can find online. So, you never know, if the Aussies win the Twenty20 World Cup, they could hit the town and celebrate with the fans again.

The Aussies must be wary of both India and South Africa, however, as these two teams will both stand a great chance of winning the tournament if they perform at their optimum level. India have some of the best-rated batsmen in the world and their spinners will play crucial roles, especially as the pitches dry out as the tournament goes on.

In fact, home advantage for such a major competition is crucial as India will be able to try and get the pitch into an advantageous state for them. Meanwhile, South Africa have the likes of AB de Villiers and Hashim Amla in the side and both men are capable of racking up monstrous totals – in fact, many regard De Villiers as the best batsman in world cricket. South Africa will be very difficult to beat if those two get going.

Can the Aussies do it? Well, they can but it will be tricky. They will receive the backing of a nation and the parties will be absolutely unbelievable if Australia manage to get their hands on a maiden Twenty20 World Cup title. Both India and South Africa will be there or thereabouts but, with a bit of luck, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see Wallabies captain Steve Smith lifting the trophy on April 3rd.