Australia employ unique ploy to avoid slow over-rate penalty at T20 World Cup: WATCH

Ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022, the Australian cricket team came up with a unique ploy for avoiding the slow over-rate penalty that is levied on a team if they do not start the last over by the stipulated time. A glimpse of their tactics were seen during one of their T20Is against England, where several Australian players who were not in the playing 11 were seen fielding outside the boundary rope in the powerplay overs.

Australia finds unique way of avoiding slow over-rate penalty

As seen in the video posted by Cricket Australia's official Twitter handle, several Aussies who were not in the playing 11 for the T20Is against England were seen fielding outside the boundary rope to return the ball as soon as possible and save time in the process. It would be an interesting tactic as there have several instances of slow-over rate penalties being imposed on cricket teams during the Asia Cup.

Speaking of the strategy, Australian cricket team all-rounder Ashton Agar said, "In the powerplay, obviously, the ball flies around and you lose time when players have to go and fetch the ball which is a part of cricket. So the time thing is a really difficult one to manage."

He went on to add, "So I guess stationing the guys who are on the bench around the ground saves you 10 seconds here and there potentially. And that all adds up at the end of the day. It's not really giving you an advantage. It just makes sense. I think it is common sense in the powerplay to do that because you do not have guys out there fielding on the fence." It will be interesting to see if the Australian cricket team uses the same ploy to avoid the slow over-rate penalty during the T20 World Cup or not.

Australia T20 World Cup schedule

Below is a look at the Australian cricket team's T20 World Cup 2022 schedule in the Super 12 stages:

Oct 22: v New Zealand, SCG, 12:30 PM IST

Oct 25: v Qualifier 1A, Optus Stadium, 4:30 PM IST

Oct 28: v England, MCG, 1:30 PM IST

Oct 31: v Qualifier 2B, Gabba, 1:30 PM IST

Nov 4: v Afghanistan, Adelaide Oval, 1:30 PM IST