Dubai: Australian coach Darren Lehmann says his team is here to play entertaining cricket. Speaking after the team’s first training session at the International Cricket Council (ICC) Academy for the series against Pakistan, Lehmann said: “We are here to entertain people but obviously we want to win each and every game we play for our country.”
Lehmann has set his eyes far ahead but wants his team to live in the moment. “In the next 12 months we will play some good cricket in this tour, the coming home series and World Cup. We don’t live too far ahead as we live in the moment,” he said, adding that the focus at the moment was to prepare for the Twenty20 game on Sunday against Pakistan at the Dubai International stadium.
Lehmann has a reputation of being a tough taskmaster and he admitted as much when asked why he had opted to train in the midday heat when the upcoming matches are day-night events. “It’s hot. The coach is a very hard taskmaster and I like them getting used to the heat. It doesn’t always go down well. It will take the guys a couple of days to get over it all. Ice baths and all those sorts of things they do now in the new age, they’ll be fine.”
Lehmann is not perturbed by the injuries to some of his top players or the challenge of taking on Pakistan in conditions familiar to the opposition. “We had a few injuries and that is part and parcel of the game. You can never control injuries and we have to deal with them. From our point of view, it gives someone an opportunity if injuries happen. Everyone here is in a good spot and we are waiting for a few players to come over from the Champions league and settle down.
“We will wait and see what we get and play some good cricket because we know we have a tough opposition and they play very well here. For us we have to be at the top of our game and we are looking forward for the challenge,” he said.
Australia’s in-form allrounder Mitchell Marsh, who has been in blistering form in the Champions League, has arrived in Dubai to the delight of Lehmann. Though he cracked an unbeaten 63 to steer Perth Scorchers to an exciting three-wicket win over Lahore Lions in Bangalore on Tuesday, his team failed to reach the Champions League Twenty20 semi-finals. “Marsh has been exciting and he was fantastic in Zimbabwe in the One-day format. We want to get as many games from him as possible because we know he really has a bright future.”
Lehmann also did not want to delve too much into whether Pakistan would be weakened by the absence of Saeed Ajmal and Younis Khan. “We cannot worry too much about what is going on in the Pakistan team. We will look at them and study the side which they put up against us. At the end of the day, history shows that they always produce some very good players from somewhere. So we have got some exciting time there. We will have to play well in the Twenty20 game, One-dayers and Test matches. From our point, we have to get better every day. If we can do our things well, we will play well enough,” said Lehmann, who expressed his delight with the facilities at the ICC Academy.
“It is world class facility here. It is great to find different types of wickets [for practice] and I have never been to such a facility like this and this is fantastic. These facilities give us all the things we need to play well so if we don’t play well then it is our own fault,” he said.
