Oman, playing in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup after three years, nearly had a winning start to their campaign as they fell short in the Super Over against Namibia a few days ago. Oman now take on the Big Dog, Australia in Barbados on Wednesday, June 5 (local time) and the skipper Aqib Ilyas is not feeling the pressure of aking on a big team. Ilyas suggested that Oman will take it as any other game and even fired shots at the current squad members of the Australian team.
Speaking ahead of the match, Ilyas said, "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." Ilyas said that if the wicket turns, like it did in Barbados in Oman's first game against Namibia, the associate nation will be in the game and might challenge the Aussies while further questioning the spin game of the batters in the current team.
"You see the last match, how the ball was turning and staying low," he said. "[Australia] had a few good technique players [against spin] in the past like [Steven] Smith and [Marnus] Labuschagne but I don't think they have many now. They look to hit big. Everyone tries to go for sixes but every day it is not the same day and if the same wicket is there, maybe it can be a problem for them," Ilyas further said.
Australia lost their warm-up game against the West Indies but won the other one against Namibia. Most of their players are coming off playing on good batting wickets in the IPL and would have to adjust on sluggish surfaces in the Caribbean and the USA.
