T20 World Cup: Pulling out of IPL was best thing for me going into the tournament, says Zampa

After his magnificent spell of 2-28 played a key role in Australia beating England by 36 runs in their men’s T20 World Cup Group B match, leg-spinner Adam Zampa said him pulling out of IPL 2024 was the best thing in preparing well for the global tournament.

Zampa was supposed to join Rajasthan Royals for IPL 2024, but pulled out of it due to personal reasons. His preparation for the T20 World Cup included being a part of non-IPL players training camp in Brisbane, and playing warm-up matches.

Against England, Zampa came after power-play to take out openers Jos Buttler and Phil Salt in quick succession and from there, they lost the plot as Australia clinched a 36-run win, with the leg-spinner earning Player of the Match award.

“I made that decision a little while ago to pull out of the IPL and I thought it was the best thing for me moving forward into this World Cup. I was tired, had some niggles and I'm a family man as well, so trying to put them first over work sometimes is pretty important. I actually am a bit of a slow starter and put in a little bit of extra work.”

“My body feels great and just did that bit of extra work. Maybe a bit more bowling than I usually would before a tournament like this. But then the practice games and everything just feels nice at the moment. I am a little bit of a slow starter, but this feels like a rare occasion where I've started how I want to,” said Zampa in the post-match press conference.

He also felt England were under pressure once Australia openers David Warner and Travis Head took 74 runs off them in the power-play. "I think they were under the pump and it showed. It's so hard to bowl it in the Powerplay, and if your bowlers aren't summing up the conditions quickly it can get frustrating."

"Heady and Davey took advantage of it. We try not to be like that. We speak about it a bit. Our leadership isn't like that. It's 'Cummo' (Pat Cummins, the Test and ODI captain), 'Bison' (Mitchell Marsh, the T20I captain) who are very calm. That helps us, as bowlers as well."

In the match at the Kensington Oval, Australia wicketkeeper Matthew Wade was left fuming in the 18th over after pulling out of facing an Adil Rashid delivery. Though Wade blocked it, he insisted to on-field umpire Nitin Menon that it should be signalled a dead ball, instead of a dot ball. Zampa thinks that exchange of words left Wade fired up behind the stumps and chirp continuously in keeping England away from chasing 201.

"It's very rare for him to block the next one, especially Wadey. I think he didn’t really have intention (to face up) – it followed him, he blocked it, Wadey just asked the question. Wadey obviously felt it went one way and Jos at the time felt it went the other."

"I think he felt like that it was the same basically as letting it hit him in the leg on a dead ball. But it doesn’t take much to fire Wadey up. Wadey is a fiery guy, super competitive – and something ticked him over a little bit today and that's what we love about Wadey."

"I think after the six or seventh over mark he came up to me and said, 'Let's not sit back here, let's go. We can't wait for them to make the mistake because they’re not going to'. Basically stay in the contest.”

"That’s the beautiful thing about Wadey, having him behind the stumps – so competitive, you hear his voice and that makes a huge difference. If you've got a wicketkeeper who is quiet, whose body language is the opposite of someone like Wadey, you can feel that as well," he concluded.