The warm ups are over and all eyes are now firmly fixed on the World T20 World Cup, which officially starts on Saturday.
England have suffered a huge blow just days out from their opener against Afghanistan with seamer Reece Topley ruled out with a frustrating ankle injury.
Left-armer Topley, who has struggled with injury in the past as four stress fractures in five years left him contemplating retirement, rolled his ankle on a boundary sponge on Monday and scans have revealed significant damage to the 28-year-old. It’s a brutal blow for him as much as England.
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Topley, whose parents were due to land in Perth hours after his exclusion, has reinvented himself and become a force in white-ball cricket — especially T20s — and is able to bowl at any phase in the shortest format.
But Jos Buttler’s side, who are also without key batter Jonny Bairstow after his “freak” leg injury, are still among the frontrunners to lift the trophy on November 13.
Since arriving in Australia, England have been a force to be reckoned with and they will be full of confidence heading into the tournament. A fine 2-0 win, with the third game washed out, against the hosts — who won last year’s tournament — set them up nicely before they pummelled Pakistan in their final warm-up game.
All of the top-order batters; Buttler, Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Ben Stokes and Harry Brook have made significant contributions in the warm-ups whilst Liam Livingstone showed glimpses of his big-hitting exploits against Pakistan as he played his first game since August.
England are the current 50-over world champions and are desperate to assert their white-ball dominance in recent times by becoming dual champions, which would be a huge achievement given where they were in 2015 when they were dumped out of the World Cup at the group stage.
If England are to win the tournament they will need to safely navigate their way through the group phase, which they have landed on the wrong end of, where they will face Australia and New Zealand.
And speedster Mark Wood is relishing the challenge of helping his country to another famous global gong.
Wood’s quick recovery from his elbow operation is a huge boost and the fact he’s still bowling in the mid 90s is a huge relief to the English management especially with Jofra Archer still nursing his own chronic elbow problem.
Since returning from surgery the Durham quick has taken nine wickets in three T20s at a phenomenal strike-rate of just eight. His career strike-rate of 14.3 is the lowest ever among England bowlers in the format.
And the tee-total ace is under no illusions about his role as a vital wicket-taking cog in the masterminded plan which has plotted England’s route to glory.
"I think wickets are vital in T20 cricket," stressed Wood. "My role isn't to try and go for five, six an over. My role is to try and get good players out.
“It'll be to disrupt the sequence of the attack, so it's not just spin, spin, spin through the middle, or to try and make something happen, maybe for the guy bowling at the other end. If I can do that, it'll help the team later down the line.”
Australia are desperate to inflict more heartache on their old enemy Down Under as they bid to retain the trophy they won in the UAE last year.
But their preparations were undone with back-to-back defeats to England in Perth and Canberra, before rain saved them from being whitewashed 3-0 in the capital.
It seems the Aussies are set to reinstate captain Aaron Finch at the top of the order after experimenting with Cameron Green alongside David Warner.
Warner, who was named Player of the Tournament last year, once again holds the key. The destructive left-hander has been struggling with a sore neck but has been declared fit ahead of a crunch curtain-raiser clash with the Kiwis on Saturday.
The hosts take on Kane Williamson’s New Zealand in Sydney at 8:00AM BST, whilst England kick off their title challenge against Afghanistan at 12:00PM BST.
India face Pakistan in a hotly-anticipated match on Sunday at the MCG.
The round-robin Super 12s run until November 6th with the semi-finals played on the 9th and 10th before the final at the MCG which takes place on the 13th.
*18+ | BeGambleAware | Odds Subject To Change
