Zampa sees golden opportunities even without big three

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Zampa sees golden opportunities even without big three

Adam Zampa is quick to concede the absence of the tried-and-trusted trio of champions Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc represents a “big loss” for Australia going into battle on their latest white-ball trophy quest in Pakistan.

But the spinner who’s happy to take on the mantle of senior bowler in their new-look attack is adamant the loss of the ‘big three’ will provide golden opportunities for new heroes to try to take the Champions Trophy back home.

“When you look at our 11 and the experience that we’ve got throughout the team, obviously there’s a bit of inexperience there,” Zampa said on Thursday from Lahore, as the team prepared for Saturday’s blockbuster opener with England.

Admitting it felt a little alien to not have so many familiar faces around, with Mitch Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Cam Green also out of the picture, Zampa said: “Most ICC events we’ve played over almost a decade, it’s been a very similar bowling attack, so to not have those guys here, it’s obviously a big loss, and we know that.

“But, there’s a next-man-in mentality, it’s obviously a great opportunity. We’ve got an ODI World Cup in a couple of years, and for guys who’ve played five to 10 games, it can be difficult to come in and feel like you’re going to be a match-winner.

“But as long as we’re kind of playing our roles and contributing, that’ll be important throughout, and then hopefully a match-winner somewhere along the way pulls it off for us.”

Approaching his 33rd birthday, Zampa, with 298 international white-ball wickets under his spinning belt, is enjoying the extra onus as one of the team’s senior players at the first ICC tournament not to feature any of Cummins, Starc or Hazlewood since 2011.

“Obviously, I’m an experienced head in the bowling attack, and we’ve still got Heady (Travis Head) and Smithy (Steve Smith) in there too. Marnus (Labuschagne) has played a lot of ODI cricket now as well, so there’s enough experience there to adapt into it,” said Zampa.

“And then the younger guys don’t have to come in and set the world on fire. It’s just kind of play a role and get used to the style of cricket that we play.”

And there’s nothing better than starting out against England too, he reckons.

“It’s nice to get them first up. Yeah, it’s always nice to beat England, one of those teams that you definitely get up a little bit more for,” he said.

“And to start the tournament, it’s one of those ones where you don’t get that leeway, like we did in the World Cup, to start slow. You need to be on from ball one, and so that’s going to be important, and there’s no better team to do it against.”

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