Bruised Australia keen to turn tide in new format

Birmingham: Battered and bruised after a 5-0 thrashing in the one-day international series, Australia will hope for a reversal in fortunes when they take on England in a one-off Twenty20 International at Edgbaston in Birmingham on Wednesday.

While things have not gone to plan in the 50-over format for Australia, they are a much tighter unit in the shortest format of the game. They are currently second on the MRF Tyres ICC T20I team rankings, just behind Pakistan, and have been victorious in seven of their last eight T20Is.

Their most recent triumph in the 20-over format came in the Trans-Tasman tri-nation series involving England and New Zealand where under the captaincy of David Warner they won all of their five games, including the final.

The team will, of course, be without Warner this time, and there are more key changes from the ODI squad that was walloped by England as well.

For starters, Aaron Finch will lead the side. Tim Paine, the ODI captain, will also hand over wicket-keeping duties to Alex Carey, who has been named vice-captain. Finch will have that extra responsibility. His hundred in the fourth ODI is bound to give him much-needed confidence.

For England, it is more about keeping the momentum going. Unlike their ODI form, they haven't been at their best in T20Is. They have lost four of their last five, and are currently fifth on the rankings chart.

The T20I squad is not too dissimilar to the ODI setup. Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Alex Hales, Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler are once again expected to form the crux of the attack.

Jason Roy was in serious touch in the ODI series amassing 304 runs in five outings with a high score of 120. He will once again have the task of getting his side off to a flyer.

Teams from

England: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jake Ball, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, David Willey

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (wk), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth, Kane Richardson

Pitch and conditions
The weather is likely to hold nicely and we should be able to get a full game. Though the last T20I played at Edgbaston was back in 2014, some of the totals here indicate another high-scoring affair.

Stats and trivia

• Australia won all five of their fixtures in the aforementioned tri-series, making it six out of seven victories (plus one abandonment) since February 2017.
• England, by contrast, have rather lost their mojo since reaching the final of the World T20 in April 2016. They have won five and lost eight of their last 13 games.

Match facts
Wednesday 27 June 2018
Start time: 18:30 local (17:30 GMT)