England's miserable tour of Australia hits its final leg with the beginning of the T20 series starting with the first match on Wednesday in Hobart.
Where to Watch Live
The game is scheduled for a 7.35 AEDT (2.05 pm IST) start with live coverage on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1 in India. The match can also be watched through live streaming online in India HERE. Catch the action in the US HERE, while UK viewers can live stream the match HERE. Viewers in Australia can watch the match live online HERE, while Africa viewers can catch the game HERE.
The visitors would be sick of seeing the Australia side by now, having been handed a 5-0 pasting in the Ashes series, and a 4-1 drubbing in the one-dayers. With a new captain - Stuart Broad - at the helm, and some fresh faces for the T20s, however, England will hope for a better result come the three-match T20 series.
"I'm really excited to captain this group of players because they are a group of players that always want to improve and I think you need that in international cricket," Broad said. "But also a group of players who are not shy and are not scared to take the brave options."
England will go out with pretty much their full-strength T20 squad, while Australia will have plenty of players missing after the selectors deciding to send the likes of Mitchell Johnson, David Warner and Shane Watson, to name a few, early to South Africa, to prepare for the tour abroad.
George Bailey was also hit with another major blow with all-rounder and finisher extraordinaire James Faulkner ruled out of the series with injury, and the T20 skipper admitted finding some kind of consistency ahead of the World T20 in Bangladesh in March is vital to his team's fortunes.
"The challenge every team faces is just there's no continuity through Twenty20 series," Bailey said. "You come together at the end, like this at the end of a summer, or between Tests and one-dayers and it's over in four or five days.
"It's sometimes tough to remember who played in the last Twenty20 let alone what sort of role they played, so it is a big challenge.
"We'll look to start to get a little bit [of continuity] through these games. Obviously there's a handful of guys who will go on to South Africa and then into the World Cup, and we'll start to nut out a few of those roles and then obviously from South Africa onwards you try to have your best 12 or 13 there [for the World T20]."
Team news: Australia: Mitchell Starc will sit out the first and most probably the second game as the fast bowler ramps up his comeback from a back injury. "I think the plan at this stage is for him to play the last game of this series," Bailey said. "It's great to have him back.
"I thought he was our best bowler at the last World Cup and when he's at his best he is someone who is really specific in what he does; he swings the ball up front and can take early wickets... then he's really good at the death. He has specific skills to be able to nail a yorker and can also bowl reverse swing as well."
Cameron White is likely to play his first game for Australia since the World T20 in Sri Lanka in 2012, and has been tipped to join Aaron Finch at the top of the batting order after some impressive performances for the Melbourne Stars in the Big Bash League.
England: T20 specialists Michael Lumb, Alex Hales, Luke Wright and Jade Dernbach will also be keen to make an impression, and will also have the advantage of not being too scarred by the England defeats in the Test and ODI series'.
"We've got some unbelievable strikers in our side," Broad said. "If we can lay a platform with the likes of Lumb, Hales, Wright -- and see how they strike a ball -- then you've got [Eoin] Morgan and [Jos] Buttler coming in. It's a pretty scary batting line up. I'd imagine the three games are going to be pretty exciting to watch and hopefully we can let our skills to do the talking because, if we do, I think there'll be some high scores."
Expected lineups: Australia: Aaron Finch, Cameron White, Chris Lynn, George Bailey (capt), Glenn Maxwell, Moises Henriques, Matthew Wade, Ben Cutting, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Josh Hazelwood, James Muirhead.
England: Michael Lumb, Alex Hales, Luke Wright, Eoin Morgan, Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler, Ben Stokes, Stuart Broad, Chris Jordan, James Tredwell, Jade Dernbach.
