Home-ground advantage looms as a genuine factor in the Twenty20 World Cup, with data showing no team benefits more from acting as hosts than Australia.
Australia will start their T20 World Cup defence as favourites, with a crucial opener against New Zealand at the SCG on Saturday night.
Recent history dictates that home ground advantage is of significant benefit in the 50-over game, with the last three World Cups won by the hosts.
However, of the seven global Twenty20 tournaments played to date, none has been won by the hosts.
If any team is positioned to break that streak, it is Australia.
That's because they go from winning 49 per cent of T20s on foreign soil to enjoying a 63 per cent success rate when they play at home.
Of all teams in the Super 12 stage of the World Cup, no other side has such a large jump to a winning percentage at home.
Australia's bouncier pitches are no doubt part of that, with Aaron Finch's team also having the advantage of playing their Test pace attack this tournament.
Knowing the grounds is also another key factor, with clear discrepancies between venues in Australia.
"There's a lot of different ways you can play cricket in Australia and that's the beauty of it," Finch said.
"You get such varied conditions from the east to the west, even north in Brisbane to the south in Melbourne and Hobart.
"There's so many variables that the team that wins the competition will be a really well-rounded one, a team that can adapt to changing conditions."
Another key factor is the size of the larger grounds, with Adam Zampa stating this week he had the advantage of knowing where he wanted batters to try and hit him at each venue.
The size of grounds has already played some part in the qualifying stage of the tournament, with potentially more importance on batters keeping the scoreboard ticking over rather than consistently taking fielders on in the deep.
"There are places where all game styles will be effective," Finch said.
"There are some guys who are serious power hitters who don't take any boundary size into consideration because if they middle it, it's going over anyway.
"It's probably the guys in the middle order who are playing in places like England, the subcontinent where they're small and fast, that they can get away to a flyer with boundaries early in your innings (as opposed to on most Australian grounds).
"That's what makes T20 a great game - there's so much strategy but the fundamentals are still there."
AUSTRALIA'S TWENTY20 WORLD CUP FIXTURES
October 22 vs New Zealand, SCG
October 25 vs Sri Lanka, Perth Stadium
October 28 vs England, MCG
October 31 vs Ireland, The Gabba
November 4 vs Afghanistan, Adelaide Oval
November 9 semi-final, SCG
November 13 final, MCG
