AB FAB: AB de Villiers clears the boundary against England at the Wanderers last month. The Australians can expect a similar performance in the coming Twenty20 series that starts in Durban on Friday. Picture: GAVIN BARKER/BACKPAGEPIX
AB FAB: AB de Villiers clears the boundary against England at the Wanderers last month. The Australians can expect a similar performance in the coming Twenty20 series that starts in Durban on Friday. Picture: GAVIN BARKER/BACKPAGEPIX

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AUSTRALIAN captain Steven Smith, who scores a good deal of runs from a decidedly unorthodox batting style, may nonetheless have an idea as to how textbook-correct batsmen can be contained.

Keeping the crackerjack AB de Villiers on a leash is his priority, which he admits will not be an easy task. After enduring a lean spell against Stuart Broad and company during the Test series against England, De Villiers found his range towards the end of the one-day series and exploded into his pyrotechnic self in the second Twenty20 match.

"It’s very difficult to contain him because he’s one of the most destructive, if not the most destructive, batsman in the world, and he does hit the ball 360 degrees.

"Once he gets going, he’s pretty hard to stop. We’ll have a few plans in place that’ll hopefully work, but he’s a terrific player who’s very hard to stop," Smith said.

What with lucrative domestic Twenty20 leagues sprouting with each passing season, there is still a sense that at international level, the format struggles to find relevance outside its showpiece starting later this month in India.

While the three-match Twenty20 series between SA and Australia should be hyped as a clash of giants, with the Wanderers Twenty20 on Sunday already sold out, the truth is the games are not much more than warm-ups.

Australia come into Friday’s first Twenty20 at Kingsmead on the back of a healthy 2-0 Test series win in New Zealand, but their Twenty20 form is not worth writing home about.

They were blanked 3-0 by India, as they played like a team bereft of strategy. Smith was just a squad player in a team that was poorly marshalled by Aaron Finch, but feels they have a different energy after the tired display against MS Dhoni’s team.

Smith seems to have two rather simple objectives: find a combination that will work, while also ensuring that the fringe squad members will be able to slot in seamlessly in the event of injuries. There is also the rather peculiar element of preparing for a subcontinent-based tournament in SA.

"Its about playing some Twenty20 cricket together because that’s something we haven’t done regularly over the last couple of years," Smith said. "It’s a great opportunity for us to try and gel as a unit before the World Cup. Hopefully, the South African curators can make the pitches a bit slow with a bit of turn, because that’ll benefit both sides. "Let’s see what happens over the next three games.

"It’s about trying to move everything forward and be going in the right direction before the World Cup. We’ve got a few guys who are looking to open the batting and some other places being fought for," Smith said.

"However, it’ll take a whole squad to win a World Cup. In winning the 50-over version, we used all 15 players available to us, and that was beneficial."