ADELAIDE: Australia are stepping back in time in an effort to maximise their chances of a fifth World Cup title by dusting off old videos of fielding master classes.

The team's fielding coach, Greg Blewett, believes sharpness in the field will be key in Friday's quarter-final against Pakistan at the Adelaide Oval.

“Over the last month or so we've shown a fair bit of footage of some really good Australian fielders who have gone before these guys,” Blewett said.

“It's about them hopefully starting to replicate a bit of what guys like Andrew Symonds, Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden (achieved).

“Trying to get them to force a bit of their own legacy. The other thing is trying to create a bit of competition amongst the guys at training.”

Improving Australia's performance in the field has been high on the agenda since coach Darren Lehmann labelled it “shoddy at best” after a handful of chances went down in the Boxing Day Test against India.

Lehmann reckoned that the World Cup would probably be won by the best fielding side.

“The three best fielding sides are South Africa, New Zealand and us,” said Blewett, who played 46 Tests and 32 ODIs in his career.

“We're all pretty close. Everyone knows how important fielding is, particularly when it comes to the bigger games.”