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Welcome to live coverage of Australia vs England from Perth’s Optus Stadium. First ball: 7:10pm AEDT!
Aaron Finch has sent England in to bat, as Steve Smith was left out of the match in a huge blow to his chance of making Australia’s XI for their World Cup opener later this month.
Smith, whose strike-rate is the slowest of Australia’s batters in the past month, is in a shoot-out to make the XI against presumably Tim David, who has exploded in the minds of selectors.
The Aussies left their first-choice bowling line-up back on the east coast, after a short turnaround between the series win over the West Indies in Queensland, and Sunday’s match at Optus Stadium, before they return to the east coast for games in Canberra on Wednesday and Friday.
“We’re going to keep tinkering with things just to make sure we’ve got all bases covered heading into the World Cup,” Australian captain Aaron Finch said last week.
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Burns & Khawaja DROP hattrick ball! | 00:30
It’s hoped Marcus Stoinis (side strain) and Mitch Marsh (managed) will feature in tonight’s XI as they prepare for likely spots in the World Cup side.
Finch was impressive in the first of two wins over the West Indies, but less so in the second, as he and Steve Smith appear to be battling for one spot.
Kane Richardson and Ashton Agar will get opportunities on the bowling side while the selectors may look silly if Cameron Green, not named in the Australian World Cup squad, performs well.
On the England side, they’ve made five changes to last year’s World Cup squad most notably losing the injured Jonny Bairstow. Jos Buttler captains while Ben Stokes returns after missing the previous World Cup through mental health issues.
England has only beaten Australia in a T20I in Australia once in eight attempts – back in 2011.
The line-ups will be announced after the coin toss, and the match gets underway at 7:10pm EDT.
Squads
Australia XI: David Warner, Aaron Finch (c), Mitch Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Cameron Green, Matthew Wade (wk), Daniel Sams, Nathan Ellis, Kane Richardson, Mitchell Swepson
England XI: Jos Buttler (c, wk), Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, Mark Wood
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