AGENCIES
JOHANNESBURG
Australia captain Steve Smith is hopeful South African curators will create pitches similar to what his side will face in India at next month's T20 World Cup.
Australia arrived in South Africa on Tuesday for a three-match warm-up series against a Proteas side brimming with confidence after beating England 2-0 earlier this month. The T20 World Cup is the one major cricket tournament Australia has never won and Smith's team is pooled in a tough group with India, Pakistan and New Zealand.
"For us this series is just about playing some T20 cricket together," Smith told reporters. "We haven't played a great deal together for a couple of years and it's a great opportunity to try and gel together as a unit before the World Cup.
"Hopefully the curators will try to make the pitches slow and turning, that will benefit both sides. But we'll wait to see what they'll come up with over the next three games."
Australia have named five all-rounders in their 16-man squad in Shane Watson, Ashton Agar, Glenn Maxwell, James Faulkner and Mitch Marsh, and Smith believes they will all play a huge role in India.
"It will take a whole squad to win a World Cup, we saw how beneficial that was in the Cricket World Cup in Australia," he said. "For us at the moment we need to be flexible and adaptable and a lot of the all-rounders are bowling extremely well.
"That might mean we are able to go batter-heavy. It's nice to have the options."
