Big game at the start can set the tournament up for you: Australian allrounder Marcus Stoinis

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

IPL), Australian allrounder Marcus Stoinis has a good understanding of the Indian conditions. That makes him one of the key players in the Australian side at the World Cup. Ahead of their opening game against India in Chennai, Stoinis speaks with Boria Majumdar.Excerpts:

Australia are one of the favourites going into the World Cup. Having played an ODI series against India in India just 10 days back, how is the side shaping up?
I tend to agree with you that we have a very good side.

We have all the bases covered. We have power hitters at the top, we have some fantastic batters in the middle-order and then we have a good lower middle-order who can make tangible contributions. With the ball, we have fantastic fast bowlers and some very good spin options.

So, it is a well-rounded team and I certainly would like to believe we will have a very good World Cup campaign. Having said that, I don’t think I agree with the tag of favourites. There are a number of teams which are very good and have some very good players.

So, these tags don’t really mean much to us as players.

You have played a lot of your cricket in India in the last few years, courtesy the IPL. And that true for a lot of the Australian players in this World Cup side. How much of this helps in demystifying the Indian conditions?
I am now going into my ninth season of the IPL next year.

A lot of the other players like Dave Warner, Maxi (Glenn Maxwell), Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins, now Cameron Green all play the IPL and it makes a massive difference. We have a very clear idea of the conditions and the kind of pitches we might encounter during the World Cup. We also know the angles in each ground, the boundary dimensions, where to play our shots etc.