Australia will take on New Zealand in a Group 2 encounter at the HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala, Friday.
Australia have had a torrid time in the shortest format of the game in recent times and will look to change their fortunes in the ICC World T20 2016, here in India.
The Aussies have not won a World T20 trophy as yet. This time, newly-appointed T20 captain Steve Smith is confident that they can pull it off against the powerhouses of cricket.
Meanwhile, for New Zealand, they have started off with their ICC World T20 campaign with a thumping victory over India in the opening match.
Kane Williamson and co. have come into this tournament as the dark horse and it will be a real test for the other teams to beat this unpredictable Kiwi side.
Revenge will be on the cards when the Black Caps will take on Australia the HPCA Stadium Friday afternoon. New Zealand has not forgotten the ICC World Cup 2015 Final loss and they will surely come hard at the Aussies.
If the New Zealanders think it will be easy against the Aussies, they might just make a mistake. Australia have a strong batting lineup — David Warner, Glenn Maxwell, Shane Watson, Mitchell Marsh, Aaron Finch and James Faulkner -- all of them can hit the ball out of the park with relative ease.
Apart from this, the HPCA Stadium is not very big and the batsmen can clear the boundaries easily.
New Zealand also have a number of serious hard-hitters in their ranks. Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Ross Taylor, Corey Anderson, Grant Elliott and others can also send the ball quite a fair distance.
Coming to the bowling, the Aussies are riding on the back of a couple of a series of wins over South Africa, where they bowled pretty well. But during the warm up game against West Indies, no other bowler apart form Josh Hazlewood could create an impact. Smith has to address this bowling issue before they take the field against the Kiwis.
Meanwhile, New Zealand were brilliant against India in the first match. But their spinners are unlikely to get much assistance from this Dharamshala wicket like they got from the Nagpur pitch.
ICC World T20 2016 Match 6: Australia vs New Zealand schedule:
Date: Friday, March 18.
Time: 3 p.m. IST (8:30 p.m. AT, 10:30 p.m. NZT, 9:30 a.m. GMT, 5:30 a.m. ET)
Venue: HPCA Stadium in Dharamshala.
TV listings: India: Star Sports 1, Star Sports HD1, Star Sports 3, Star Sports HD 3 (the latter two with Hindi commentary). Indian subcontinent: Star Sports network. New Zealand: Sky Sport 1. UK: Sky Sports HD2. USA and Canada: Willow TV. Middle East and North Africa: OSN Sports Cricket HD. South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa: SuperSport 2.Australia: Fox Sports 3. Hong Kong and Singapore: Star Cricket. Malaysia: Astro Cricket HD. West Indies: ESPN.
