Australia’s lowly Twenty20 ranking is a concern, stand-in coach Trevor Bayliss says.

But he reckons the Australians have the playing talent to rise in the rankings by accounting for the world’s best, South Africa, in the looming three-match T20 series.

Bayliss is filling in as Australia’s T20 coach given regular coach Darren Lehmann’s overseas Test commitments.

And he has given the Australian short-form squad a simple message ahead of Wednesday’s series opener against the Proteas in Adelaide.

“Come here and play your own game, keep things simple and you give yourself the best opportunity to succeed,” Bayliss told reporters on Sunday.

Bayliss was uncertain for the reasons why Australia is ranked fifth in the world in T20 cricket.

“It’s a concern,” he said.

“You always want to be as high up the ladder as possible. And the ultimate goal, I’m sure, is to be number one in all three formats of the game.

“That is a very difficult thing to do but that is the aim.

“We have got some very good opposition to play but I’m a believer that if we play some good cricket, there’s no reason why we can’t win this series and win it well.”

Bayliss said his simplified message should help achieve that goal.

“I’m not big on par scores or setting targets,” he said.

“I think a lot of the times if you set a target or par score, you could inhibit yourself – you might be able to go well past that. And if you put too big a target on it, you can put yourself under pressure.

“We are going to concentrate on doing those simple things and I’m sure if we do that, we’ll have a good score to defend.”