'Twenty20 can do your head in'

Nathan Bracken believes Australia should not get too stressed by the Twenty20 World Championship and the tournament will reveal how the format is really viewed by players and fans. Bracken, who is one of Australia's most economical limited-overs bowlers, said it was important to keep the three-hour contests in perspective.

"If you take it too seriously it will just do your head in," Bracken told AAP. "Having watched games and played in games you can definitely see how if you start to worry where every ball goes and you get stressed about being hit for four or for six, you can do your head in."

Bracken conceded only 3.6 runs an over during Australia's World Cup defence in the Caribbean but he knows it will be difficult to be efficient at the World Championship in South Africa in September. "Batters are going to take you on and it does not matter who you are and how you are bowling, they are going to hit good balls for four," he said.

"It comes down to being adaptable as quickly as you can and settling down into a situation and trying to get as many dot balls as you can or maybe just as fewer balls going to the boundary or over it as you can. In South Africa the grounds are quite small so the pressure will be on there as well."

Australia's campaign begins with group matches against Zimbabwe and England at Cape Town. Should Australia reach the final on September 24, they will have made seven Twenty20 appearances in the space of a fortnight, compared to the five games they have played in the last two and a half years.

Bracken said he was unsure how the 12-team competition would be received. "It will be interesting to see what people think of it and how it comes across," he said. "It has not been put on a whole world scale, we have seen the impact it has had in different countries here and there, but now we get to see the whole impact for everybody and especially coming off the back of a World Cup in the one-day format. It might be a good way to find out where it stands and how people view it."