Nathan Ellis set the tone with a superb first ball of the T20 World Cup that bamboozled Ireland opener Ross Adair<\/p>\n
World Cup day games require ‘lots of spin, change ups’: Ellis<\/p>\n
Nathan Ellis doesn’t subscribe to him being the “leader of the attack”, but there was no better way for Australia’s most experienced fast bowler to start his World Cup campaign than with a wicket from his first delivery.<\/p>\n
It wasn’t your traditional hit-the-seam, then the top-of-off first-ball wicket either; Ellis rather prides himself on being able to bowl any of his countless variations with his first delivery of a match or spell.<\/p>\n
As soon as the ball hit the wearing Premadasa Stadium surface, Ireland opener Ross Adair knew he was in trouble, with the Australian right-armer’s back-of-the-hand slower delivery dying after pitching before sending the batter’s middle stump cartwheeling.<\/p>\n
Ross Adair is bowled by Nathan Ellis in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup match at Colombo \/\/ Getty<\/p>\n
Teammate Matthew Renshaw labelled it a “brave” way to begin a World Cup, but said Ellis was so comfortable with the delivery that it wouldn’t have fazed him.<\/p>\n
Ellis is the most senior quick in Australia’s T20 World Cup squad following injuries to Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins, and Mitchell Starc’s T20 international retirement last year. He revealed post-match the plan to start his spell with his renowned change-up came after observing Xavier Bartlett was unable to find any swing or seam in his opening over.<\/p>\n
“It’s something that I’ve really tried to challenge myself on a little bit is trying to bowl it first ball,” the 31-year-old said of his back-of-the-hand delivery after his career-best 4-12 helped Australia dismantle Ireland by 67 runs in Colombo.<\/p>\n
“I mix it up; I bowl it first ball some games and then some games I don’t.<\/p>\n
“But I want to be able to pretty much bowl any ball that I have (with my) first ball of a game.<\/p>\n
“I use the Big Bash a lot to challenge myself to do that. We get a lot of different conditions, a lot of different wickets and a lot of different batters.<\/p>\n
Ellis celebrates the wicket of Ross Adair with his back-of-the-hand slower ball \/\/ Getty<\/p>\n
“So I don’t want to feel any pressure or nervousness not to bowl a certain ball just because it’s the first ball.”<\/p>\n
Having opted to bowl in all bar two of their past 34 instances of winning the toss dating back to their last men’s T20I tour of Sri Lanka in 2022, stand-in Aussie skipper Travis Head elected to bat owing to the mid-afternoon start for their opening match of the 2026 T20 World Cup.<\/p>\n
Head deputised for Mitch Marsh who had been ruled out of the Ireland clash that morning after failing to recover from a blow to the groin suffered while batting at training last Sunday.<\/p>\n
Ellis said Head’s call to bat first determined how they would structure their bowling innings.<\/p>\n
“It’s the second use of that wicket and it was a 3pm start in the sun,” he said. “It looked like a good wicket and well compact, but we just thought it was going to progressively get slower, hence why we batted first.<\/p>\n
“We obviously saw the slower balls were really effective \u2026 through our batting innings.<\/p>\n
“So we went into our bowling innings with that feedback from our batters and it showed again that in these day games you might need a lot of spin bowling, some change ups and a bit of chaos.”<\/p>\n
Ellis talks bowling change-ups, variations and inspirations<\/p>\n
But Ellis said there was no chaos in the build-up to their tournament opener despite losing their skipper just hours before the first ball.<\/p>\n
“He’s been a little bit sore over the last few days the poor bugger; you don’t envy a man in that position,” Ellis said of the blow that caused Marsh internal testicular bleeding.<\/p>\n
“We got an inkling (on Tuesday). It’s never a great scenario for the team when you lose your captain but also for the person who goes to bed the night before thinking they’re not playing and then has to come in.<\/p>\n
“But we’ve got the most easy-going group in the world; Travis Head stepped in as captain and his heart rate probably doesn’t get above 25 at the best of times.<\/p>\n
“We all want ‘Mitchy’ (Marsh) there and we love him leading us, but it wasn’t spoken about too much and we just tried to hit the ground running.”<\/p>\n
Australia only have a 40-hour break until their second Group B match against Zimbabwe, which will kick off in the even earlier morning timeslot of 11am on Friday (4:30pm AEDT) at Premadasa Stadium.<\/p>\n
2026 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup<\/p>\n
Australia squad:<\/strong> Mitch Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshuis, Cameron Green, Nathan Ellis, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Matthew Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: <\/strong>Sean Abbott<\/p>\n Australia’s Group Stage fixtures<\/p>\n February 11:<\/strong> beat Ireland by 67 runs<\/a><\/p>\n February 13:<\/strong> v Zimbabwe, R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo (4:30pm AEDT)<\/a><\/p>\n February 16:<\/strong> v Sri Lanka, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 17, 12:30am AEDT)<\/a><\/p>\n February 20:<\/strong> v Oman, Pallekele International Stadium, Kandy (Feb 21, 12:30am AEDT)<\/a><\/p>\n Australia’s Super Eight fixtures<\/p>\n (Assuming all seeded teams qualify)<\/p>\n February 23:<\/strong> Australia (X2) v West Indies (X3), Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai (Feb 24, 12:30am AEDT)<\/a><\/p>\n February 26:<\/strong> India (X1) v Australia (X2), MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai (Feb 27, 12:30am AEDT)<\/a><\/p>\n March 1:<\/strong> Australia (X2) v South Africa (X4), Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, 8:30pm AEDT<\/a><\/p>\n