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Australia skipper Aaron Finch won the toss and elected to bowl first against Sri Lanka who made one change in their playing XI to bring back Maheesh Theekshana. However, Sri Lanka lost their opener Nissanka soon. The two in-form teams will square up against each other to add the crucial points in their kitty to move forward in the semifinals race. Australia registered a comfortable win over South Africa in their last match courtesy of their bowling attack. While Sri Lanka batters came up big against Bangladesh to earn them crucial two points.

The two teams have a rich history of playing against each other in ICC events but in the past few years, Sri Lanka’s cricket standards have dipped a bit after the retirement of their legendary players. However, in the ongoing T20 WC, the Sri Lanka players have played quality cricket and impressed many. (AUS vs SL Live Streaming T20 World Cup)

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On the other side, some of the senior Australian players are struggling with the form including David Warner, Aaron Finch and Mitchell Stac. Despite that, Australia will enter the match as favourites but Sri Lanka are also expected to play the spoilsport for them.

In warm-up matches, Warner had scores of 0 and 1 while Finch, returning from a knee surgery, made 24 and 8. In Australia’s first match against South Africa in the ICC men’s T20 World Cup, Finch was dismissed for a duck while Warner struck three boundaries before falling for 14.

“I don’t see a lack of form at all. They’re terrific players. They’re just short of runs. To be honest, guys that are world-class players for as long as they have been in this format are never out of form. They’re just short of runs at the moment. We back them wholeheartedly,” said Wade in a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

Playing XIs of Australia and Sri Lanka

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Steven Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (w), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Sri Lanka: Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Perera (wk), Charith Asalanka, Avishka Fernando, Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dasun Shanaka (c), Chamika Karunaratne, Dusmantha Chameera, Maheesh Theekshana, Lahiru Kumara

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