No major surgery for Nielsen

Twenty20 / Editor / 20 June 2007 / Leave a Comment

Tim Nielsen does not envisage making wholesale changes for the Twenty20 World Championships in South Africa as he embarks on a new era as coach of Australia.

The retirement of Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath and Justin Langer means Nielsen has some huge voids to fill ahead of a hectic 2007/08 campaign.

Emerging stars Shaun Tait, Ben Hilfenhaus, Mitchell Johnson, Cullen Bailey and Dan Cullen are all contracted by Cricket Australia but none has had an extended run in the team.

However, Nielsen has hinted that some could get their chance when the Twenty20 World Championships starts in September although he added there is not likely to be many changes from the group that won the World Cup.

"There's young guys like Tait and Johnson who haven't played a lot of one-day cricket," said Nielsen, speaking at the Melbourne launch of Cricket Australia's ticketing program for 2007-08.

"And even Michael Clarke got opportunities batting at No. 4, which means that although he's been around for a while he's now got a new role.

"So it's a bit of a new-look side anyway - I don't think they'll need to make drastic changes."

Australia are the predictable 3.05 favourites for the showpiece event on Betfair's newly-formed "Twenty20 World Cup - Tournament Winner" market, with home nation South Africa next best at 6.2.

World Cup finalists Sri Lanka and India are available at 9, while England are on offer at 9.4.