England will clash against Australia yet again for a one-off T20 match at The Sophia Garden Stadium in Cardiff on 31 August, Monday.
A T20 match sandwiched between the recently concluded Ashes 2015 (which Australia lost 2-3) and the five-match ODI series has its own significance. The road to the ICC World T20 2016 in India starts from now for both the sides as they would want to resurrect their T20 records before they plunge into the Indian conditions in March 2016.
Australia T20 captain Aaron Finch is injured and he will not be a part of this Australian squad who will take on England in Cardiff on Monday. As a result, Steve Smith, who has been handed over the ODI and Test captaincy after Michael Clarke's retirement, will lead the young and fancy Aussie side for this day.
Surprisingly, England have not played more than one match in this format of the game for almost 12 months now. The last T20 match that Eoin Morgan and his boys had played was against New Zealand at Manchester in the month of June, where the former emerged victorious. On the other hand, Australia too have not played a single T20 match since last November. Both are caught in a rusty situation, but this is the perfect time to flex the muscles.
Australia will be showcasing a number of young talents in this one-off T20 game against England. One of them is Cameron Boyce. This young leggie has an impressive economy rate of 5.64 in this format and his strike rate is phenomenal as he usually picks up one wicket every 15 balls.
"I think as a leg-spinner you've really got to read the batsmen quite well. I think he does that. He knows when someone is going to step down at him and try hit him for six, and when they're going to sit back. He adjusts his length and his pace quite well so I'm looking forward to seeing him bowl out here. It's going to be quite tough conditions I reckon with probably a pretty good wicket and short straight boundaries so he's going to have to adapt there and see how he goes," Australia skipper Smith said in an interview with the official website of Cricket Australia.
The last time these two sides locked horns with each other was after the Ashes 2014 in Australia. England went on to lose all three matches, but England captain Eoin Morgan said that he is ready for the T20 challenge against Australia.
"Now our priority turns to the T20 World Cup and driving our one-day cricket forward," Morgan told the reporters ahead of their clash against Australia in a one-off T20 match at the Sophia Garden Stadium in Cardiff.
The Weather
There is no forecast of rains, so one can expect an exciting T20 game at the home of Glamorgan. The last time an international T20 match was played at this venue was back in September 2010. England had won both the matches. The wicket is likely to produce a run feast as well.
Probable XI's:
England: Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan (C), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Billings, Adil Rashid, Chris Woakes, David Willey, Steven Finn.
Australia: David Warner, Shane Watson, Steven Smith (C), Glenn Maxwell, George Bailey, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Mitchell Starc, Cameron Boyce, Pat Cummins.
Where to Watch Live:
The one-off T20 match between England and Australia is scheduled for a 3pm local time (7:30 IST, 10:00 EST and 12:00 am Australian Time) start and the live coverage in India will be available in Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1. The match can be streamed live on StarSports.com.
Viewers in UK can tune into Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports HD 2. The live streaming option will be available on SkyGo.
Viewers in Australia can watch the one-off T20 between England and Australia on Nine Network and stream the same on Cricket.com.au.
Cricket fans in US can switch to ESPN 3 and stream the match live on WatchEspn.
