Hosts New Zealand kicks off their summer with the Trans-Tasman rivalry as they face Australia in a 3-match T20I series with all matches set to be played at the Bay Oval in Mount Maunganui. New Zealand and Australia play three matches in a span of 4 days in a short but exciting series for both teams. All these T20Is are important and have context with the T20 World Cup 2026 coming up in February-March 2026 in India and Sri Lanka.
While both teams will look to fine tune their skills, they are also missing key players due to injuries and other reasons and so, both teams are nowhere near full strength at this stage. Michael Bracewell will lead New Zealand in Mitchell Santner’s absence while Mitchell Marsh will lead Australia who too are missing players due to injuries and other reasons like retirements. But those that are there will make sure that we get a competitive series between both the teams.
Overview.
New Zealand will locks horns with Australia in a three match T20I series in a span of just 4 days. All three fixtures of the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy are scheduled to take place at the Bay Oval with the series opener taking place on Wednesday. The two teams will definitely keep an eye on the weather forecast, as this is the earliest start to the cricketing summer in New Zealand.
This Chappell-Hadlee Trophy began in the 2004-05 season and was widely used in the ODI format for nearly two decades. In 2024, the two boards agreed to use this popular trophy in the T20I format as well. Overall, Australia have held the upper hand taking home the trophy 8 times compared to New Zealand’s 4. The last time the Kiwis won was in 2017. Since then, it has been all Australia as they have dominated the show and kept the trophy with them.
Speaking about the current scenario, neither team is quite at full strength coming into this marquee series. New Zealand will miss several of their key players, including their regular captain Mitchell Santner, who has been ruled out of the series following abdominal surgery for an injury he picked up during his stint in the Hundred with Northern Superchargers.
Apart from Santner, the hosts will be without Glenn Phillips (groin injury), William O’Rourke (back injury), Kane Williamson (unavailable for selection), Finn Allen (foot injury), Adam Milne (ankle injury) and Lockie Ferguson (hamstring injury). In Santner’s absence, all-rounder Michael Bracewell will lead the Kiwis. Despite all those notable absentees, New Zealand still have a strong squad to challenge the mighty Aussies.
They will heavily rely on Tim Seifert, who has been in serious form and is coming off a superb Caribbean Premier League with St. Lucia Kings, Devon Conway, Mark Chapman, Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell with the bat. Tim Robinson and Bevon-John Jacobs are the other talented batters in the set-up, with both having a few international caps under their belt.
However, Rachin Ravindra’s participation in the first T20I is in serious jeopardy after the all-rounder collided with a permimeter boundary hoarding while attempting to take a catch during the fielding practice on the match eve and sustained a facial injury. He received a facial laceration and will continue to be monitored by the medical team, having passed an initial concussion test at the ground, according to New Zealand Cricket. This is his second such incident this year, after he missed the Champions Trophy due to an injured forehead.
New Zealand’s pace attack will be led by the ever-consistent Matt Henry, who has been in unreal form across formats in recent times. Jacob Duffy, Zak Foulkes, Kyle Jamieson, and Ben Sears take care of the fast-bowling duties along with Henry, while the seasoned campaigner Ish Sodhi will see off the spin department alongside his skipper. Jamieson missed New Zealand’s last series in Zimbabwe due to paternity leave, while Sears is coming back after recovering from a side strain.
On the other hand, the Mitchell Marsh-led Australian side recently got on top of South Africa in a three match T20I series at home. However, they lost the ODI series, but showed their power in the third and final ODI. Just ahead of the squad announcement, the legendary left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc said goodbye to the T20Is. Apart from Starc, Australia will be without their Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins, who is recovering from a back injury and racing against time to get fit for the Ashes later this year. Spencer Johnson has been out of action for a while and is still recovering from back soreness.
Cameron Green, who has been in some batting form in white-ball cricket, has opted to skip this tour in order to prioritise Sheffield Shield Cricket in preparation for the home Ashes with both bat and ball, as the all-rounder hasn’t been bowling for some time to manage his injury workload.
Nathan Ellis is on paternity leave and will miss the tour. In addition, wicket-keeper batter Josh Inglis and Glenn Maxwell have also been ruled out due to respective injuries. Alex Carey, who was initially left out, and Josh Philippe, who has been scoring runs for Australia A in India in red-ball cricket, have been called into the squad as respective replacements. Inglis picked up a calf strain in Perth earlier September, and a subsequent scan ruled him out of the series.
Maxwell, who was rolling his arms over in the nets, was hit on the right wrist by his teammate Mitchell Owen, smashing one straight back in the practice. The scans later revealed a fracture in his right wrist, ruling him out with another freak injury. Travis Head and Marsh will continue to open and destroy the opposition’s bowling attack. Carey is more like to don the gloves. Tim David and Mitchell Owen have been performing well in recent times, and the Kangaroos will look forward to the two power-hitters to make merry of small boundaries at the Bay Oval.
All-rounder Matthew Short has finally recovered from his side strain that ruled him out of West Indies and South Africa series. He is more like to be slated at number 3 or 4 in Green and Inglis’ absence. This tour will be one of the most important assignments for Short as it gives him a chance to prove his worth in his strong set-up.
Along with Short, another all-rounder has returned to the T20I squad. The experienced Marcus Stoinis is back after missing the Windies and Proteas assignments. Stoinis missed those international games in order to feature in the Hundred for Trent Rockets. With the T20 World Cup looming around the corner, Stoinis will look to put on a solid show, and the absence of Maxwell adds more value to his involvement in the side.
Josh Hazlewood continues to feature and perform in the shortest format. The premier Aussie pacer will lead the bowling attack. Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott and Xavier Bartlett will come in for his support. The spin wizard Adam Zampa will have the left-arm spinner Matt Kuhnemann as his back-up.
The stage is set for the first of three matches at the Bay Oval. Can New Zealand stop the Australian dominance over them? Only time will tell.
Head-To-Head.
New Zealand and Australia have played in 19 T20I matches so far with New Zealand winning 6 and Australia 13. It is 7-3 in the visitors’ favour in the last 10 games and Australia have won the last three T20Is against New Zealand in 2024 when they toured them in February. So, Australia hold the advantage over their neighbours.
Pitch & Weather Report.
The pitch at the Bay Oval is expected to be good for batting. The batters will enjoy batting on the surface as the ball will come onto the bat nicely due to its true nature. The bowlers may get help initially with the new ball. There may be swing early on and then different variations need to be used. Spinners will have to hold one end up as they may not be wicket-taking options here given the conditions. The team winning the toss may bat first and put runs on the board and have to put somewhere around 200-210 on a small ground.
The weather report for the Wednesday game has no chance of rain and we can expect a full game of cricket. The maximum temperature is predicted to be 17 degrees Celsius while the minimum temperature will be 10 degrees Celsius.
Predicted/Probable Playing XIs of both sides:
Here, we will predict the probable playing XIs of both sides:
Australia XI: Mitchell Marsh (c), Travis Head, Matthew Short, Alex Carey (wk), Tim David, Mitchell Owen, Marcus Stoinis, Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood.
New Zealand XI: Tim Seifert (wk), Devon Conway, Tim Robinson, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Jimmy Neesham, Michael Bracewell (c), Kyle Jamieson, Ish Sodhi, Matt Henry, Jacob Duffy.
Key Players to watch out for in this clash:
Tim David: Tim David has been in red hot form for Australia in West Indies and in the home series against South Africa. He has single-handedly delivered match winning performances for Australia and the visitors will look upto him to deliver the goods yet again. If he fires and finishes things off in style, Australia will go a long way in dominating this series yet again.
Adam Zampa: The spin wizard Adam Zampa has an important role to play even though the conditions may not suit him. He is a genuine wicket-taker and can hold one end up. He can take key wickets and derail the opposition in the middle order. Much will depend on Zampa to deliver the goods in that phase and make it easier for the others. He will try to make sure he does not leak runs too much.
Tim Seifert: Tim Seifert has been in red hot form in franchise cricket and in international cricket. Batting at the top of the order, Tim is expected to give the team a flying start in the powerplay. He will be expected to rattle the Australian attack and give the hosts a flying start. Whether he can do that, remains to be seen.
Matt Henry: Matt Henry has been the most dependable bowler for New Zealand across formats. This T20I series will be important for Henry to deliver the goods for his side and take early wickets to put the Aussies under pressure. If Henry is on song, it could be difficult for Australia to score runs. So, his overs in all phases at the start and at the end will be the key going forward.
Key Stats/Records ahead of the first T20I.
- Tim David is just 75 runs away from 1000 T20I runs for Australia.
- Tim David needs 17 runs to complete 1500 runs in T20Is.
Predicted/Possible Outcome of the Match.
Both teams are grappling with injuries and looking to see the depth of their squad and bench strength. It is going to be one hectic competitive series at the Bay Oval. But taking everything into consideration, we reckon Australia will start as favourites and go 1-0 up in the series. New Zealand will fight hard and can surprise the mighty Aussies but with Rachin Ravindra officially now ruled out of the series, the task becomes even difficult. We shall see how things go, but the Aussies start as favourites.
Let’s see how things unfold when the first match of the series gets underway at 11:45 AM IST from the Bay Oval.
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