And, yeah, finally, the Australian duo Steve Smith and David Warner is back in the Australian colours. They have been named in the playing XI for the practice game against New Zealand, which will be led by Tom Latham. Surprisingly, they left out Glenn Maxwell from the playing XI.
David Warner to bat at number 3:
It seems like Australia is heading into the ICC World Cup 2019 with a different plan. They are happy with the opening duo Usman Khawaja and Aaron Finch, who are asked to continue in the same role. It certainly pushed the returning David Warner to number 3 position.
Meanwhile, the former skipper of Australia, Steve Smith, who got the stunning record at number 3 will go down to number 4 position. And also, this led Shaun Marsh and Marcus Stoinis to get down one position.
Shockingly, the best performer in the recent past Glenn Maxwell has been left out from the team. Coming to the match, Australia won the toss and elected to bowl first in the first of three warm-up games this week at Allan Border Field in Brisbane.
Another major surprise is the exclusion of Mitchell Starc, who recently made his way back into the side from a muscle tear. Meanwhile, they chose Adam Zampa as the partner to Nathan Lyon alongside the fast bowling department that will be led by Pat Cummins.
Well, it would be interesting to see how things would pan out at new position for David Warner and Steve Smith. If everything falls in place, this would be the stunning batting lineup for Australia, as they can deal with any kind of bowling attack on their day.
And also, here is the playing XI:
Australia XI: Aaron Finch, Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Steve Smith. Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Nathan Coulter-Nile. Pat Cummins, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa
New Zealand XI: George Worker, Henry Nicholls, Will Young. Tom Blundell, Tom Latham, Jimmy Neesham, Daryl Mitchell, Todd Astle. Doug Bracewell, Matt Henry, Hamish Bennett