T20 World Cup 2026: Do Australia care more about Tests than T20Is? Adam Zampa answers

Published - 21 Feb 2026, 10:02 IST | Updated - 21 Feb 2026, 10:28 IST

Adam Zampa opined that Australian coaches invest more time in how the team will play T20 cricket than they give to the red-ball format. His statement came after his four-for against Oman in an inconsequential tie in the 2026 T20 World Cup on Friday, February 20. Both Australia and Oman bowed out of the tournament, with Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka progressing from the group.

Since Australia's early exit from the marquee event, fans have been discussing that the Men in Yellow are prioritising Test cricket and neglecting the T20 format. Pat Cummins hinted that the reason for missing the tournament was to keep his focus on helping Australia qualify for the World Test Championship final in 2027.

During the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup, Australia faced disappointing defeats to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe, eventually being eliminated from the competition. This is the first time they were knocked out in the group stage of the T20 World Cup since 2009.

Since the end of the 2024 edition of the T20 World Cup, Australia has played eight T20I series, winning five of them, losing two, and drawing one. Zampa, however, dismissed the notion, saying that the competition in T20Is is tighter than in Tests, with Australia and the other top-three sides more dominant.

"It's totally false, yeah. The time that the coaches and the staff put into how we're going to play our T20 cricket and who's going to play each role and our preparation is, I think they'd probably put as much time into that than they would Test cricket. I think, potentially even more. I don't know, but potentially even more time, because T20 cricket, one-day cricket, everyone's a lot tighter in the world, whereas Test cricket, Australia and top two or three teams are quite dominant, so I don't think the work is needed as much, whereas with this format in particular, it's a lot tighter," said Zampa after the win versus Oman.

Zampa said that the Australian players put in a lot of effort behind the scenes to hone their skills for white-ball assignments, and fans don't get to know exactly how much importance is being given to the formats.

"So the work is definitely there. It's just - I think the Australian public struggle with the fact that they don't get to see much of what much white ball cricket play. We play like three to six games in the summer. We do a lot of our work away from Australian time, so they don't get to see the way that we kind of play and have prepared for these World Cups. And we've done some – played a lot of really good cricket up until now so it's yeah it's disappointing that it's ended like this but I think that the work and the time is as much effort as the other formats," said Zampa.

T20 WC 2026: Australia vs Oman, Match 40 – Full highlights

Australia bowed out of the T20 World Cup with a consolation nine-wicket win against Oman on Friday. Zampa won the Player of the Match award after finishing with figures of 4/21 in 3.2 overs. Oman were bowled out for 104 before Australia chased the paltry target in 9.4 overs. Skipper Mitchell Marsh top-scored with an unbeaten 64 off 33 balls.