England v Australia, 1st T20I, Southampton – Australia set to return to International Cricket after 6 months

The oldest rivalry in the history of this sport is set to resume from later today, albeit in a much more compressed format. England, fresh from having played 2 limited-overs fixtures post their lockdown, will take on Ashes rivals Australia, who last collectively played a Cricket match against New Zealand in the month of March, […]
 
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England v Australia, 1st T20I, Southampton – Australia set to return to International Cricket after 6 months

The oldest rivalry in the history of this sport is set to resume from later today, albeit in a much more compressed format. England, fresh from having played 2 limited-overs fixtures post their lockdown, will take on Ashes rivals Australia, who last collectively played a Cricket match against New Zealand in the month of March, just before every outdoor activity was shut down under. The two contingents will compete in a three-match T20I series, followed by a 3-match One Day International series.

This will be the first time this summer that England will be able to avail the services of the majority of their first-team limited-overs Cricketers, barring Ben Stokes, who had to return to New Zealand to be alongside his ailing father.

Jos Buttler, who had a topsy-turvy summer in white clothing, although signing off in the best possible manner – a resilient 150 and a few attractive dismissals behind the stumps despite being bang average with the big gloves throughout the summer, will be back to friendlier territory. He would be raring to go, play his natural, fast-blast bludgeoning game, having played an extremely sedate role until a few days ago.

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Jofra Archer will be an individual who’d be raring to go as well. Tonight will be the first occasion since his super over heroics in the World Cup final last summer that he’ll get to steam in holding the white ball instead of the red, with which he hasn’t had the ideal last few months, despite offering a few fiery spells every now and then.

Like a wounded tiger in a cage, David Warner will figuratively lick the wounds he suffered during the Ashes last year – coming off badly facing Stuart Broad and enduring the jeers and mockery from the England crowd, and pounce upon the opportunity to recreate the purple patch he went through prior to the Ashes against the white ball, scoring a staggering total of 647 runs with three hundreds in the World Cup.

England v Australia, 1st T20I, Southampton – Australia set to return to International Cricket after 6 months

Glenn Maxwell has returned from a year-long hiatus from the sport, something that he desperately required after hitting a mental block. He had to get away from the game to restore his love for it. Now that he feels to have regained his passion, he would want to be back to his absolute destructive best with the bat and make up for the lost time in his International career. The fact that he has been working on his bowling also re-adds a new dimension to his game altogether, something that helped him reach the top spot of the ICC T20 all-rounders ranking 2 years ago.

England v Australia, 1st T20I, Southampton – Australia set to return to International Cricket after 6 months

Glenn Maxwell was at his peak as an all-rounder two years ago

Team News – England

The return of T20I opener Jos Buttler to the side will spoil the England camp for choice. While he is supposed to be an automatic choice in the playing XI, the conundrum lies in whom should Buttler play instead of?

Among the ‘fringe’ players in the top-order, Tom Banton and Dawid Malan have exceeded expectations in the top-order, with Banton blazing away with 71 in the first T20I against Pakistan, followed by two quickfire knocks in the remaining two games in the series. Although Malan was not at his best in the first game, he made a case for himself by guiding England to a crucial victory in the second with an unbeaten 54.

The best solution to the conundrum is to send Banton back to his original position since his debut in England colours; the middle order, in place of Sam Billings, who would rather unfortunately have to miss out, having not made much of an impact in the previous series unlike Moeen Ali, whose return to form last game was a massive morale booster for the England side.

Probable XI:

Jos Buttler (wk), Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan (c), Tom Banton, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Jofra Archer

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Team news – Australia

Although a hundred in the final intra-squad warm-up game might have helped Marnus Labuschagne make a case for himself for a spot in the XI, unless Australia opt to play an extra batsman ahead of pace-bowling all-rounder Mitchell Marsh, the chances of him replacing the likes of Steven Smith or Glenn Maxwell, who celebrated his return to the game of Cricket after a year-long hiatus with a hundred in the 50-Over warm-up game, are quite thin.

But given how the Australians experienced what it was like to have a shallow batting line-up, with the likes of Agar, Cummins, Daniel Sams, and Mitchell Starc batting 6 and 7, they would want an extra batsman who has the capability of scoring quickly as well as batting through the innings. Alex Carey made doubly sure of his place in the side as the first-choice keeper ahead of Wade and Philippe with a blistering 100 in the 3rd warm-up match.

Probable XI: David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Kane Richardson, Adam Zampa

Venue: The Ageas Bowl, Southampton, Hampshire

We have seen a flat deck with formidable carry through to the keeper being used throughout the England-Ireland ODI series. According to Australian captain Aaron Finch, the pitch behaved similarly in the intra-squad warm-up matches, and he believes that it will stay the same tonight, which will be resulting in yet another high scoring clash. This will be the first T20 International on this ground in 3 years, the previous instance of a T20I played here being the game against South Africa, which the hosts comfortably triumphed in by 9 wickets. Overall, a good batting deck and clear skies are expected.

Head-to-Head record in T20 Internationals:

Matches: 16(2005-2018)

England: 6

Australia: 9

No result: 1

The last time the two teams met in a T20 International was two years ago at Edgbaston, in which the hosts registered a victory by 28 runs.