Having been part of an Australian team that lifted the World Cup, George Bailey has now set his sights on replicating that success with the Kings XI Punjab side during the Indian Premier League.
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Bailey was forced to give up the Australian captaincy and make way for Michael Clarke in Australia’s playing XI after the first match of the World Cup.
But despite his role as ‘12th man’ in the Baggy Green’s success Down Under he is not disheartened and is gearing up for the job at hand as he believes Punjab, who open their campaign against Rajasthan on Friday, will be one of the teams to beat.
“It was special to be part of a World Cup winning squad regardless of the fact I did not get to play much. We enjoyed the success but most of the guys have shifted their focus to IPL. The big change this season will be about meeting the standards we set last year.
“In our first year, we surprised a lot of other teams. This year, we are one of the hunted teams,” said Bailey, whose side topped the standings last year only to lose in the final to Kolkata.
A traditional welcome bestowed upon our Lions as they arrived at the team hotel in Pune. pic.twitter.com/3Fnc6HggFY
— Kings XI Punjab (@lionsdenkxip) April 6, 2015
“So it will be about handling our own expectations. As long as we are able to play what we are capable of, I think we can have some more success.”
An area Bailey will target as far his batting is concerned is the ability to tackle spin and the middle order batsman feels he ready to handle it.
“There were a few things I worked specifically on with Darren Lehmann (Australia coach). I knew that coming across to India, I would be playing lot of spin bowling in this format. So besides fine-tuning my T20 game, the focus was on tackling quality spinners,” Bailey said.
Bailey admits World Cup team-mates Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Johnson will once again spearhead his Kings XI challenge but he added that the performances of young Indians players will also be crucial.
“The regular guys like Maxwell, Johnson, David Miller will no doubt be key again,” he added. “But what was encouraging last year was the development of some of the Indian guys like Manan (Vohra), (Axar) Patel, Wriddhiman Saha, Rishi Dhawan. It is important that we perform as a unit.”
