Adam Zampa dismissed the notion that Australia only cares about Test cricket and doesn’t pay much attention to T20Is after their T20 World Cup 2026 campaign ended on Friday, February 20. Australia ended the campaign with wins against Oman and Ireland, but failed to progress from their group for the first time since 2009, suffering defeats to Assri Lanka and Asusri Lanka. with the bat and ended up unable to make key breakthroughs with the ball.
Since the end of the T20 World Cup in 2024, Australia have played eight T20I series, winning five, 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 suggested that the reason for skipping the tournament was to focus on helping Australia qualify for the 2027 Test World Cup finals.
After the win over Oman, Zampa said the idea of Australia caring more about Tests was completely wrong and said the team management and coaches were devoting more time to the shorter format than the red one.
Zampa said the competition in T20Is is tighter than in Tests, with Australia and the other top three sides more dominant.
“It’s completely bogus, yes. The time that the coaches and the staff have 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 spend as much time on that as they would Test cricket. I think potentially more. I don’t know, but potentially more time because one day in T20 cricket everyone’s very tense, the cricket world Test cricket, Australia and the top two or three teams are quite dominant, so I don’t think the work is needed as much, whereas with this format specifically, it’s a lot tighter,” Zampa said.
The leg-spinner said fans don’t get a chance to see the Australia T20I side in action as they play most of their matches away from home.
“So the work is definitely there. I just – I think the Australian public struggle with not seeing a lot of white-ball cricket. We play like three to six games a summer. A lot of our work is done outside Australian time, so they don’t see the way we play and prepare for this World Cup. And now we’ve played a lot, yes – yes disappointing that it’s ended up like this, but I think the work and the time is just as demanding as others formats,” said Zampa.
As for the current WTC standings, Australia are on top with seven wins from eight matches played.
HOW DID ZAMPA RATE ITS OMAN PERFORMANCE?
Zampa was the star of the show with the ball for Australia as they beat Oman. The leg-spinner took 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 meaningless in terms of Australia’s campaign.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Like when you come into these games, it’s a bonus to get some goals and come away with a win, but I reckon I’d probably feel exactly the same if I didn’t get any for today. Yeah, I feel pretty empty to be honest. Again, you’d rather have goals than not, but it’s probably the worst feeling I’ve ever had.”
Australia finished third in Group B, with Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka qualifying for the Super 8 stage.
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Published on:
February 21, 2026