Familiar foes England and Australia will face off in the first of three T20 internationals scheduled for this week on Wednesday at the Rose Bowl in Southampton.
England enter this series ranked fourth in the world according to the latest ICC Men’s T20I Team Rankings, while Australia are in second place behind world champions India.
Match preview
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Australia return to England for the first time since last summer’s unforgettable Ashes series, which, along with the action on the field – the controversial Jonny Bairstow stumping for instance – will also long be remembered for the off-field events, particularly the incident between MCC members and the Aussie players in the Lord’s Long Room.
Of course, all of those moments came before the heavens opened, dashing England’s hopes of reclaiming the coveted urn, and the Three Lions will undoubtedly be out for redemption over the next three weeks, albeit in the white-ball formats.
There are mixed emotions for the hosts coming into this match, though, following a somewhat embarrassing defeat to Sri Lanka in the final Test of their series earlier this week – a result which saw England’s hopes of completing the ‘perfect summer in two decades’ brought to an end.
The Three Lions are now set to return to the shortest format of the game since their trip to the West Indies and the US earlier this year, where they reached the semi-final of the T20 World Cup, though most would agree that their performances throughout the competition were some way from the level we have seen in the past, especially during the group stage.
Indeed, it was in Bridgetown back in June when Jos Buttler‘s side lost to the Aussies by 36 runs and put their Super 8 qualification hopes in serious jeopardy, while it also denied England a fourth consecutive victory over their old foe in the 20-over game.
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Meanwhile, after a flawless group stage at the World Cup, Australia suffered a shock exit in the Super 8 stage of the competition, ultimately owing to a 21-run defeat to a plucky Afghanistan, who followed India to the quarter-finals from the section.
However, the Aussies have had the ideal tune-up heading into this series, having spent the last week just north of the border acclimatising, while also clean-sweeping Scotland in a three-match T20 series.
Based on the tour of Scotland, the men from Down Under mean business, specifically Travis Head, who along with skipper Mitchell Marsh, set a new world record for runs scored in a powerplay in the first match, powering the side to 113/1 in six overs after Jake Fraser-McGurk was dismissed for a duck on debut.
Head equalled the record for the fastest half-century by an Australian player in a T20 match and was on track to break Aaron Finch‘s Australian record of a 47-ball century, but sadly fell short, notching up 80 runs off just 25 balls.
In match three, it was Cameron Green who captured the headlines with his all-round heroics, claiming three wickets with the ball in hand before scoring an unbeaten half-century in just 33 deliveries during the run chase, leading his side to a 3-0 series win with 23 balls to spare.
Australia now return to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 2020 and will still have fond memories of this venue, having left here with a five-wicket victory on their last visit.
Team News
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England’s white-ball skipper Jos Buttler will sit out the three-match T20 series and is a doubt for the 50-over matches as well due to a calf problem, meaning Phil Salt will assume captaincy duties for the foreseeable future.
Interim head coach Marcus Trescothick, who will be replaced by England legend Andrew Flintoff next month, has also called up Surrey all-rounder Jamie Overton to the T20 squad, while Essex batsman Jordan Cox has been added to the ODI squad as cover.
For Australia, the two most notable absentees from the squad include Pat Cummins, who has been rested for this tour, while David Warner called time on his international career after the T20 World Cup in June. Travis Head will lead the troops in Cummins’ absence.
Jake Fraser-McGurk has been brought in to replace Warner at the top of the order, though he will need major improvement on his performances against Scotland, where he contributed 16 runs in a single innings and was dismissed without troubling the scoring in the remaining two matches.
England squad: Phil Salt (c), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, John Turner
Australia squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Marcus Stoinis Adam Zampa
We say: Australia to win
While England have been the dominant force in this contest in recent years, the Aussies have the psychological advantage heading into this series after beating the Three Lions fairly comfortably in the World Cup group stage.
Additionally, this is the first time the hosts are featuring in the 20-over format since returning from the US and West Indies, while the visitors just completed a commanding clean-sweep against Scotland.
This match will likely give us a better indication of what to expect from the English, so for now, we are going with the Aussies to claim match one.
