Australia captain Meg Lanning believes their chances of a successful T20 World Cup defence title in South Africa will rely on her champions absorbing the pressure as much as piling it back on the opposition.
As they prepared to take on New Zealand in their tournament opener on Saturday in Paarl, Lanning said on the eve of the match that the five-time champions Australia were "on a level pegging" with the remaining nine teams.
She played down her team's top-billing as hot favourites to lift the trophy, saying: "Every team comes into this tournament starting on zero points and has to go out there and win the World Cup - and that's the way we're approaching this tournament."
Talking ahead of the team's first training session at Boland Park in Paarl on Friday, Lanning added: "We have high expectations of ourselves. We're obviously coming here to win.
"That's the end goal, but we know there's a lot of steps to go through before we even get to that point."
Top-ranked T20I side Australia's three-wicket shock defeat to the No.10-ranked Ireland in their second and final warm-up fixture on Wednesday had vice-captain Alyssa Healy describe the result as "nothing too stressful".
Lanning, for her part, felt there were lessons to be taken from the upset.
"Coming here, looking forward to the challenge, and no matter what team we come up against -- as the Ireland game showed -- we have to be at our best to win. We were not surprised by that. We expect that," said the captain.
"That's the challenge that we've got as a group. We know teams are going to come pretty hard at us and we'll have to sort of absorb some pressure and also put them under the pump as well, which is something we've done really well over the last few years in particular.
"So we're really looking forward to the challenge and what better way to start than against a team like New Zealand."
How Australia may fare in the tournament could depend, to a degree, on the form of evergreen star allrounder Ellyse Perry.
During their victorious India tour in December, the 32-year-old finished second only to Beth Mooney on the run charts, averaging 82.50 for her 165 runs in three innings.
"Ellyse is very experienced and is someone who turns up at the big tournaments and plays well in big games, and that's a really good trait to have," said Lanning.
"And I think we'll see that throughout this one.
"I think her batting has gone to another level. Through that India series, we saw that. She's a very dynamic player. She can hit the ball as far and as hard as anyone in world cricket.
"So, it's nice to see that she's sort of taken that step and really utilising everything that she's got. I think the opposition should be pretty nervous about what she might bring."
Australia last toured South Africa for the 2005 ODI World Cup, their March 2020 six-match bilateral series in the country having been called off due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.
Hoping that the "conditions are really good for competitive cricket and some really free-flowing T20 cricket" in the World Cup, Lanning made it clear her side will "come out here expecting that".
"And if we need to adjust, then we will," she added.
