The first of three T20 internationals between England and Australia takes place in Southampton on Wednesday and we take a look at the squads, the form and the all important betting.
This is a 3 match series with the second contest taking place at Cardiff on Friday and the third at Manchester on Sunday, after which there will be 5 ODI's.
Let's start with the T20 squads.
England: Phil Salt (C), Jofra Archer, Jacob Bethell, Brydon Carse, Jordan Cox, Sam Curran, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood, Dan Mousley, Jamie Overton, Adil Rashid, Reece Topley, John Turner
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Spencer Johnson, Marcus Stoinis, Adam Zampa
Recent Form
England:
England blew hot and cold in the recent T20 World Cup in USA / Caribbean, they eventually made it to the semi finals were they were thrashed by India by a margin of 68 runs. In the group stage they lost to Australia by 36 runs.
A 4 match series at home to Pakistan in May this year delivered a 2-0 win for England with the other 2 matches abandoned.
Australia
Australia were in Scotland at the start of this month and they won all 3 matches comfortably; 7 wickets, 70 runs and 6 wickets.
Their T20 World Cup campaign started well with 5 straight wins before they came unstuck against Afghanistan (lost by 21 runs in the Super 8's). Next time out they went down to India by 24 runs, a defeat which saw them miss out on the semi finals.
In February this year Australia completed a 3-0 clean sweep of the Black Caps in New Zealand.
Head to Head
Overall the teams have met 24 times in this format with both sides winning 11 and no result was possible in the other 2.
Rose Bowl, Southampton
Since 2005 the Rose Bowl has staged 11 T20's involving England, delivering 6 wins for the home side and 5 defeats. However 3 of those defeats have come in the last 4 at this venuw and in the most recent matches in 2022 they lost to India by 50 runs and South Africa by 90 runs
You can check the weather forecast here
The Betting - 1st T20
At the time of writing England are 12/10 to win the match and Australia can be backed at around 6/10 with Sportingbet
England are even money to hit the most sixes with Australia at 8/11
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
The Verdict
England are missing Jos Buttler so Phil Salt takes over as skipper and there some names I'm not overly familiar with in the squad, Josh Hazlewood missed the Scotland tour so watch out for news of whether he will be fit for this series.
I'll have nothing more than a passing interest in the series opener with a view to getting more involved on Friday and Cameroon Green, who took 3 wickets and hit 62 not out in the third match against Scotland recently, could be value in the MoM market.
Bets: Man of the match Cameron Green at 12/1 with Sportingbet
Note all prices are correct at the time of writing but are subject to change
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