New Zealand picked to bat versus Australia
Big-hitting Josh Clarkson will certainly make his T20I debut as New Zealand captain Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to bat against a close to full-strength Australia in the series-opener at Skies Stadium.
Steven Smith was ignored for Australia with allrounder Matthew Short chosen and detailed to bat at No. 7.
Clarkson has been called at No. 6 for New Zealand with speedster Lockie Ferguson returning from injury having actually missed the Super Knockout final for Auckland.
New Zealand remain in good form in the format having actually beat Pakistan 4-1 at home last month. Santner is captaining in the collection in place of Kane Williamson that’s waiting for the birth of his third youngster.
New Zealand are also without hurt fast Matt Henry, while allrounder Daryl Mitchell is recovering from a foot injury.
Mitchell Starc, Rub Cummins and Travis Head return after missing out on Australia’s current 2-1 T20I series victory over West Indies.
With Josh Hazlewood and legspinner Adam Zampa also in the line-up, Australia will field their pure frontline assault as Starc and Cummins return having actually been rested given that Australia’s home Test summer wrapped up late last month.
Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade is on paternal leave and will certainly miss this suit with Josh Inglis to take the gloves. Inglis will certainly bat at No. 5, while Head opens as anticipated along with David Warner.
With the T20 World Mug just over three months away, the three-match series is the final preparation for both groups as they seek to pick squads for the event to be played in the USA and the Caribbean.
The trans-Tasman rivals will certainly be defending the Chappell-Hadlee trophy, which had actually previously just been awarded to the champion of reciprocal ODI series between the groups.
New Zealand: 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Mark Chapman, 6 Josh Clarkson, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Tim Southee, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Lockie Ferguson
Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 David Warner, 3 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Josh Inglis (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Short, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood