Melbourne - With the home summer drawing to a close, a buoyant Australian side will look to continue their winning run ahead of their clash against England in the Twenty20 International tri-series at the MCG on Saturday (February 10).

Unbeaten so far in the tournament, a win on Saturday will seal their place in the final. The new-look Australian side began their T20I campaign notching up an impressive seven-wicket win against New Zealand and made it two-in-two after thrashing England by five wickets. Glenn Maxwell has infused new life for the hosts in this series. He started off by smashing a 24-ball 40 against New Zealand and followed it up by blitzing an unbeaten 58-ball 103, coupled with bowling figures that read 3 for 10. Maxwell’s all-round effort also meant that he made up for the top-order’s struggles. David Warner and D’Arcy Short are yet to come up with a solid performance and the stand-in skipper in particular, will be keen to end his woeful run with the bat.

Match starts at 1:20 pm

The bowling department looks formidable with the likes of Andrew Tye and Billy Stanlake, the pacers, doing the bulk of the damage at the top. With Marcus Stoinis and Kane Richardson in the mix along with some handy offspin from Maxwell and Ashton Agar, Australia’s bowling combination looks good on paper. On the other hand, England’s devil-may-care approach has yielded them impressive results in one-dayers, but backfired in the T20Is after a middle-order collapse saw them end with a modest total despite a strong start.

A loss would mean that England will have to win both their games against New Zealand to stay alive in the tournament. Given the batting-friendly nature wicket at the MCG, Australia, who went in with Travis Head as the extra batting option are likely to go with the same side, while England may consider bringing in James Vince in their playing XI.

Talking about the must-win clash, Dawid Malan, England’s top-order batsman, felt that the “never say die” approach has served the side well. “That’s the beauty of this team. Everybody is fighting for a spot. Everyone wants to push the other guy out and everyone is trying to do everything they can to perform to help the team win,” said Malan.

AUSTRALIA: David Warner (capt), Aaron Finch (vice-capt), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey (wk), Ben Dwarshuis, Travis Head, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, D'Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye, Adam Zampa.

ENGLAND: Eoin Morgan (capt), Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Alex Hales, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, David Willey, Mark Wood.