Adam Zampa has dismissed the notion that Australia cares only about Test cricket and don’t give a lot of attention to T20Is after their T20 World Cup 2026 campaign came to an end on Friday, February 20. Australia finished the campaign with wins against Oman and Ireland but failed to make it out of their group for the first time since 2009. They suffered defeats against Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe as the Aussies crumbled with the bat and ended up not being able to get key breakthroughs with the ball.
Since the end of the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup, Australia has played eight T20I series, winning five of them, losing two, and drawing one. The results in the ongoing edition started a dialogue among fans on social media that the current Australian side cares more about the longer format of the game than the shorter ones. Pat Cummins hinted that the reason for missing the tournament was to keep his focus on helping Australia qualify for the World Test Championship final in 2027.
Speaking after the win over Oman, Zampa said that the notion about Australia caring more about Tests is completely false, saying that the team management and coaches put more time into the shorter format than the red-ball one.
Zampa said that competition in T20Is is tighter than in Tests, with Australia and the other top-three sides more dominant.
“It’s totally false, yeah. The time that the coaches and the staff put into how we’re going to play our T20 cricket and who’s going to play each role and our preparation is, I think they’d probably put as much time into that than they would Test cricket. I think, potentially even more. I don’t know, but potentially even more time, because T20 cricket, one-day cricket, everyone’s a lot tighter in the world, whereas Test cricket, Australia and top two or three teams are quite dominant, so I don’t think the work is needed as much, whereas with this format in particular, it’s a lot tighter,” said Zampa.
The leg-spinner said that the fans don’t get to see the Australia T20I side in action a lot as they play most of their games away from home.
“So the work is definitely there. It’s just – I think the Australian public struggle with the fact that they don’t get to see much of what much white ball cricket play. We play like three to six games in the summer. We do a lot of our work away from Australian time, so they don’t get to see the way that we kind of play and have prepared for these World Cups. And we’ve done some – played a lot of really good cricket up until now so it’s yeah it’s disappointing that it’s ended like this but I think that the work and the time is as much effort as the other formats,” said Zampa.
When it comes to the current WTC standings, Australia sit right at the top with seven wins out of the eight matches played.
HOW DID ZAMPA RATE HIS OMAN PERFORMANCE?
Zampa was the star of the show with the ball for Australia as they thrashed Oman. The leg-spinner picked up figures of four for 21 in 3.2 overs as the Aussies won the game by nine wickets. Despite this, Zampa called it the worst four-wicket haul of his career as the match was inconsequential when it came to Australia’s campaign.
“Yeah, it feels okay. Like, you come into these games, it’s a bonus to get some wickets and come up with a win, but I reckon I’d probably be feeling exactly the same if I got none for tonight. Yeah, feeling pretty hollow, to be honest. Again, you’d prefer to have the wickets than not, but it’s probably the worst feeling fourth I’ve ever got,” said Zampa.
Australia finished third in Group B with Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka qualifying for the Super 8 stage.
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