Marsh still confident Australia can handle spin at T20 World Cup
After suffering a whitewash series defeat in Pakistan, Australia captain Mitchell Marsh has defended his team's credentials for the fast-approaching T20 World Cup.
Australia captain labelled his side's straight sets defeat in Pakistan as 'disappointing'.
In their three losses in Lahore, they batted second in each of them and fell a combined 223 runs short of their opponents.
The Aussies were dismissed 38 times across the series and 33 of those outs were against spin bowling; a worrying trend ahead of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka's spin-friendly conditions.
But Australia's skipper has defended his team's ability to play slower bowling in subcontinental conditions and vows it will be a different story under the brighter lights of the upcoming ICC event.
"In isolation, this series, we struggled," Marsh told media.
"But over the last 18 months, we've been one of the best teams in the world and we've played spin really well. So, we'll take the learnings forward to the World Cup. We know we're a very good side in all conditions, so looking forward to the World Cup."
"We know that conditions can spin in Sri Lanka and we'll assess that when we get there.
"We also know that we've got some extremely good players of spin coming back and experience coming back. So, we've got great trust that we can play well in these conditions."
Pakistan's win margin in the third T20I of 111 runs is Australia's heaviest ever defeat in the format. Marsh now needs to help ensure the belief of his squad isn't too dented as they make the pilgramage to Sri Lanka, where their group games will take place.
"We were outplayed in both facets," Marsh continued.
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"We batted second in all the games and when you're chasing, certainly in these conditions, you need to be able to form a couple of partnerships and we weren't able to do that and Pakistan put us under good amounts of pressure.
"We came here to win this series. Full credit to Pakistan for the way they played. We'll take some great learnings from it."
Marsh thought it wasn't just Pakistan's spin attack that fired, crediting his own spinners; something the side can take confidence from heading into the World Cup.
"I thought the way some of our spinners bowled throughout the series (was a positive)," he continued.
"Some of the guys who haven't experienced these conditions before will take these experiences forward in their careers."
