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Australia in very uncertain times open their ICC World T20 campaign against local rivals New Zealand, who look to follow up a strong victory at Dharamsala. Join The Roar for live scores and coverage of the match from 8:30pm (AEDT).
Australia have had an unsettled line up and plenty of questions are being posed in the lead up to this first match of their tournament. The questions have only continued when captain Steve Smith refused to name a starting XI before the toss.
Despite struggling historically in the shortest form of the game, particularly on the biggest stage of all, they strangely had very few T20 matches in the lead-up to the World Cup.
The Aussies played three matches against India at the end of the home summer, losing all of them before going to South Africa and managing to win the series two games to one. With Aaron Finch returning from injury for that series, it saw David Warner move down the order to number four. Finch wasn’t in the best form on his return, but must turn that around.
He scored plenty of runs and the decision appeared to be a masterstroke, however, with rain expected for this match it could be a wise call to get him back to the top and make sure Australia get off to a fast start.
New Zealand meanwhile, started their tournament off with an unexpected, yet brilliant victory over India. On a pitch that was turning like it was a Day 5 wicket, they managed to score 126 and then on the back of Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi who took 4 for 11 and 3 for 18 respectively, they knocked India over for just 79.
In this new era, without Brendon McCullum the likes of Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and Corey Anderson are going to be the key men to stand up. There is some serious hitting power there, and if they fire it is hard to see exactly how Australia are going to slow them down.
Spin bowling could play a big part on the match. As already mentioned, New Zealand have plenty of options but looking at the Australian squad it is only Adam Zampa, with help from all-round Glenn Maxwell.
Australia and New Zealand of course had a series in February that involved no T20 matches. Australia would win the Test series.
Prediction
New Zealand should get the job done with their spinners playing a huge role. Rain could prove to be a factor though.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the match from 8:30pm (AEDT) and don’t forget to add your own comments in the section below as the action unfolds.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde