With the World Test Championship mace and the 50-over World Cup trophy already in their bag, Australia will look to hit the ground running in their quest to become the first team to simultaneously hold all three world titles when they take on Oman in their T20 World Cup opener in Bridgetown, Barbados on Thursday.
To accomplish the feat, the former champions will rely on their wealth of experience, with several of Australia's greatest modern-era players, preparing for their final farewell in international colours.
The T20 trophy evaded Australia for the longest time but the maiden title in 2021 changed that. However, a year later, they failed to progress from the league stage on home soil.
However, Australia have no dearth of match-winners in their squad, starting from newly-appointed skipper Mitchell Marsh. The all-rounder will be a key factor batting at No.3. Travis Head has been in red-hot form and was the side's star performer in the WTC final and ODI World Cup final.
Australia might experiment in the group stage to find their best XI. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa will play a crucial role while left-arm spinner Ashton Agar is also expected to be in the mix.
The ever-reliable trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will run the pace unit.
Oman lost their opening game after against Namibia. While they did a commendable job with the ball by taking the match into the Super Over, the batters will have to be more responsible if they want to pull off an upset win over the mighty Australians.
Squads:
Australia: Mitch Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.
Oman: Aqib Ilyas (c), Zeeshan Maqsood, Ayaan Khan, Kashyap Prajapati, Shoaib Khan, Mohammad Nadeem, Pratik Athavale, Naseem Khushi, Khalid Kail, Mehran Khan, Bilal Khan, Kaleemullah, Fayyaz Butt, Shakeel Ahmad, Rafiullah. Reserves: Jatinder Singh, Samay Shrivastava, Sufyan Mehmood, Jay Odedra.
Match starts 6am IST.
