Australia will play their first tri-series since the 2014-15 summer, but this time in T20 format as they battle with recently demoted world No.2 New Zealand and their summer-long arch-rivals, England.
Once upon a time, ODI tri-series were a permanent fixture in Australia’s summer calendar. The last to be played running was in 2007-08 when India beat Australia and Sri Lanka.
It’s made two returns since, during 2011-12 and in the lead-up to the 2015 Cricket World Cup when Australia defeat India and England, but its absence has lead to many more series against an individual opponent.
The format of the T20 tri-series looks like it could prove a bigger success though. There will be no neutral matches, with Australia to host three matches and New Zealand to host three. It means England will not play a non-home side throughout the tournament.
Starting with England, they have been in fine form since a dreadful Ashes campaign.
After losing the Test series 4-0 to Australia, they have hit back in fine fashion during the recently completed ODI series, winning 4-1.
While fresh faces in the squad certainly helped, they were a completely different unit in the way they went about their business.
Gone was the timid, defensive-minded Test play which saw them get thumped in the Ashes and in was an aggressive mindset. It comes with limited overs cricket, but right from their first run chase of the series when Jason Roy broke records, this was an England team to be feared.
It comes as little surprise they are the top-ranked team in the world with so much firepower in their batting order.
Test skipper Joe Root will miss the T20 matches along with all-rounder Moeen Ali, but with Eoin Morgan leading the side, they are missing very little. Alex Hales, Sam Billings and Jos Buttler headline the batting line-up, with all in good form during either the Big Bash League or ODI series – or both.
The real positive for England is the return of Ben Stokes. The all-rounder who has missed the entire tour of Australia so far has been cleared to return to action and is likely to suit up for England’s first clash against Australia in Hobart.
The Poms have a huge tour of New Zealand ahead, so the return of Stokes can only mean good things if he can find better form than what he displayed during a short stint at Canterbury before the end of 2017.
It didn’t hurt them because of Ali’s form, but on paper, England’s biggest problem leading into the ODI series was the lack of a fifth bowling option.
Stokes is nearly always able to bowl his allotted overs though, so it doesn’t appear as much of a problem this time, especially if Liam Dawson is to play at seven in place of Ali, as he has done in the past.
The role of Dawson is an interesting one though. He didn’t play in England’s last T20 when they lost to the West Indies and the tourists could instead elect to play Tom Curran, pushing David Willey up to number seven in the batting order.
Regardless, they have plenty of options and depth with Adil Rashid likely to form a crucial part of the team, as he did in the ODI series bowling spin.
Depth isn’t an issue for any of the three teams though. New Zealand have played plenty of T20 cricket in recent times, winning four of their last nine matches with a no-result against the West Indies included in that count.
Their form has been inconsistent at best, losing the series to India and Pakistan. It’s caused the Kiwis to lose their grip on the number one spot in the world to Pakistan, but it doesn’t make them any less dangerous.
They rested players throughout the Pakistan series as a heavy workload caught up with them, noting the England series still to come.
Kane Williamson leads the Black Caps into battle, but it would be fair to say he hasn’t been in the most convincing of form with a duck and nine in his last two innings.
His performances at the top of the order have been mainly masked by Martin Guptill and Colin Munro though.
They are both hitting the ball superbly, with Guptill hitting two half-centuries in his last four innings and Munro still harbouring memories of smacking the West Indies to all parts for 104 off 53. He followed it up with 49 not out in the first game against Pakistan
While the top order has been in fine form, there are some issues with New Zealand. Ross Taylor will need to provide plenty of stability in the top order, because there are inexperienced players floating yet to stamp their authority on a spot in the team.
Tom Bruce has shown some promise with scores of 26 and 22 against Pakistan and is likely to be a starter in the first match of the tri-series when they take on Australia in Sydney. Anaru Kitchen seems to be the other challenger for a spot in the middle order with the advantage of being able to churn out some overs if need be.
Tom Blundell made his T20 debut against Pakistan and is likely to be named as wicketkeeper after Glenn Phillips was left out of the squad.
What is known is the make-up of the New Zealand bowling attack will be first class whichever way they go. Colin de Grandhomme will be in the side as an all-rounder, joined by the lethal opening bowling combination of Tim Southee and Trent Boult.
In New Zealand conditions, there are few better bowlers in the world and the pair showed it all through the 2015 World Cup, not letting up since.
On top of the new ball combination, Mitchell Santer and Ish Sodhi, who are ranked the number one and three T20 bowlers in the world respectively will round out the attack.
Sodhi has caused Australia all sorts of problems previously, taking 1 for 14 in the 2016 T20 World Cup and 2 for 31 in Hamilton during the 2016 Chappell-Hadlee trophy.
With two high-quality opponents in front of them, Australia are going to need to perform infinitely better than they did in the ODI series against England.
Steve Smith will be rested from the series with David Warner to take over the captain, but with scores of 2, 35, 8, 13 and 15, his form is concerning to say the least. The regular vice-captain has played within himself at times this summer and looked all at sea during the ODI series.
He will be keen to regain some sort of form hitting the ball ahead of the tour to South Africa though. Warner will be joined at the top of the order by who missed the last two ODIs after getting injured, but already had two centuries and a half-century to his name.
The make-up of Australia’s middle order is up in the air.
Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell are all in decent form and expected to be there, but it seems there is only one spot to be shared between Hobart Hurricanes opener D’Arcy Short and Brisbane Heat ‘bash brother’ Chris Lynn.
Given Lynn’s injury woes throughout the summer, it’s hard to see him getting a run at the start of the series. Short’s form has been hard to ignore as well, given he has scores of 97, 96 and 122 not out across the Big Bash.
They were as an opener, but with a natural eye, position shouldn’t matter and he will be in the side alongside the similarly in form wicketkeeper Alex Carey. The South Australian made a promising start to his ODI career against England and will look to do the same in the shortest form of the game.
With a number of all-rounders, Australia won’t be short on bowling options and may opt to play Ashton Agar at number eight for extra batting depth.
It would probably mean there is no room for Adam Zampa, but purely for team balance, Agar playinng with the three-pronged pace attack of Billy Stanlake, Andrew Tye and Kane Richardson seems a good option.
The biggest positive in the attack is how many differences there are. Billy Stanlake has height, Kane Richardson niggling accuracy and Andrew Tye more variations than you could poke a stick at.
Still, form is a worry after the ODI series and they will need to pick things up if they want to compete with two of the better T20 teams in the world throughout the series.
| Match No. | Date | Time (AEDT) | Home | Away | Venue | TV (Aus) |
| 1 | Sat Feb 3 | 7:20 PM | Australia | New Zealand | Sydney Cricket Ground | Nine |
| 2 | Wed Feb 7 | 7:40 PM | Australia | England | Blundstone Arena, Hobart | Nine |
| 3 | Sat Feb 10 | 7:20 PM | Australia | England | Melbourne Cricket Ground | Nine |
| 4 | Tue Feb 13 | 5:00 PM | New Zealand | England | Wellington Regional Stadium | Fox Sports |
| 5 | Fri Feb 16 | 5:00 PM | New Zealand | Australia | Eden Park, Auckland | Fox Sports |
| 6 | Sun Feb 18 | 5:00 PM | New Zealand | England | Seddon Park, Hamilton | Fox Sports |
| Final | Wed Feb 21 | 5:00 PM | TBC | TBC | Eden Park, Auckland | Fox Sports |
Australia
1. David Warner (c)
2. Aaron Finch (vc)
3. Travis Head
4. Glenn Maxwell
5. Marcus Stoinis
6. D’Arcy Short
7. Alex Carey (wk)
8. Ashton Agar
9. Andrew Tye
10. Billy Stanlake
11. Kane Richardson
Rest of squad: Ben Dwarshuis, Chris Lynn, Adam Zampa
England
1. Jason Roy
2. Alex Hales
3. Eoin Morgan (c)
4. Sam Billings
5. Jos Buttler (wk)
6. Ben Stokes
7. Liam Dawson
8. Liam Plunkett
9. David Willey
10. Chris Jordan
11. Adil Rashid
Rest of squad: Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Mark Wood
New Zealand
1. Martin Guptill
2. Colin Munro
3. Kane Williamson (c)
4. Ross Taylor
5. Tom Bruce
6. Colin de Grandhomme
7. Tom Blundell (wk)
8. Mitchell Santner
9. Tim Southee (vc)
10. Ish Sodhi
11. Trent Boult
Rest of squad: Anaru Kitchen, Seth Rance, Ben Wheeler
Match 1 and 3
| Start (AEDT) | Finish (AEDT) | Duration | |
| First innings | 7:20 PM | 8:45 PM | 1 hour and 25 minutes |
| Innings break | 8:45 PM | 9:05 PM | 20 minutes |
| Second innings | 9:05 PM | 10:30 PM | 1 hour and 25 minutes |
Match 2
| Start (AEDT) | Finish (AEDT) | Duration | |
| First innings | 7:40 PM | 9:05 PM | 1 hour and 25 minutes |
| Innings break | 9:05 PM | 9:25 PM | 20 minutes |
| Second innings | 9:25 PM | 10:50 PM | 1 hour and 25 minutes |
Match 4 – final
| Start (AEDT) | Finish (AEDT) | Start (local) | Finish (local) | Duration | |
| First innings | 5:00 PM | 6:25 PM | 7:00 PM | 8:25 PM | 1 hour and 25 minutes |
| Innings break | 6:25 PM | 6:45 PM | 8:25 PM | 8:45 PM | 20 minutes |
| Second innings | 6:45 PM | 8:10 PM | 8:45 PM | 10:10 PM | 1 hour and 25 minutes |
*Hours of play may be changed due to over rates, weather or other circumstances.
This is going to be an intriguing series. New Zealand have been rated the best in the world, yet lost that against Pakistan at home.
They did rest players through that series though and should regain some consistency about their play here. Hosting the final in Auckland will be a huge advantage.
Australia’s limited overs game has been ordinary, although some fresh faces in the T20 squad should give them a boost of some sort.
England might be away from home, but have demolished Australia in the ODIs and with the exception of Root and Ali, have a similar squad.
New Zealand to beat England in the final.
The Roar will be providing live blogs and highlights of every game throughout the T20 tri-series.
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