Cricket – Australia v England T20 Matches

Australia v England T20

Following Australia’s 3-1 defeat in the Ashes and the flogging of the Prime Ministers XI our cricketers return to face arch-enemy England in the KFC Twenty20 International series. The first game is on 12 January at the Adelaide Oval and the second game in the series takes place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on 14 January.

Michael Clarke has announced his retirement from international Twenty20 cricket to concentrate more on his Test and ODI career and Cameron White has been made the captain for the two T20 games. Brad Haddin has been left out of the 12 man squad despite being one of the best Australian performers during the Ashes loss to England, and has been replaced by Tim Paine.

Australia v England T20 Matches:

Adelaide Oval – Wednesday 12 January 2011, 7.05 pm
Melbourne Cricket Ground – Friday 14 January 2011, 7.30 pm

The Australian Twenty20 Team:

Cameron White (Captain), David Warner, Shane Watson, Tim Paine, Aaron Finch, David Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Stephen O’Keefe, James Pattinson, Steve Smith, Shaun Tait.

The English Twenty20 Team:

Paul Collingwood (Captain), Ian Bell, Tim Bresnan, Steve Davies (wk), Steven Finn, Michael Lumb, Eoin Morgan, Kevin Pietersen, Ajmal Shahzad, Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Chris Tremlett, Jonathan Trott, Chris Woakes, Luke Wright, Michael Yardy

The most recent encounter of the two sides in International 20-20 was in the ICC World T20 final in 2010, where England crushed the Aussies. It is clear the selectors are trying to bring some young talent into the game. Aaron Finch has been in consistent and solid form in the domestic T20s, and James Pattinson is a fast bowler with great potential. The squad also sees the return of Brett Lee and Shaun Tait while Shane Watson and Dave Warner should open the innings for Australia.

England have quite a few players who are Twenty20 specialists and they will try to put Australia under pressure while England appear to being playing better cricket than we are. Here’s hoping that Brett Lee can show his top form – the form where if he doesn’t bowl them out they have to leave with bowling injuries!