🏏ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 M40: AUS vs OMA at Pallekele🏏 - Page 2

Pitch and conditions: The weather’s played its part nicely - a pleasant 25 at the top, dipping to 19 later on, with humidity hovering around 81%. The rain, though, has already had its say. It’s pulled the boundaries in slightly: around 62 and 65 square of the wicket, while straight down the ground stretches to about 74. That could easily have been longer had the rain stayed away. But as always, the real contest is on those 22 yards. This looks like an absolute belter for batting. There might be just a hint of movement with the brand-new ball, especially since the pitch has been under covers for a couple of days with that rain around Kandy. But once you get past that, it’s a really good surface. There’s a light, even covering of grass, a couple of small bare patches here and there, but nothing that should influence the game. I don’t see the spinners getting excessive turn and I don’t expect the quicks (bowlers) to find much sideways movement either. If you’re batting in the top order tonight - positions one, two, three, you’ll be feeling very confident.

Teams:

Oman (Playing XI): Aamir Kaleem, Jatinder Singh(c), Karan Sonavale, Hammad Mirza, Wasim Ali, Mohammad Nadeem, Vinayak Shukla(w), Jiten Ramanandi, Jay Odedra, Shakeel Ahmed, Shafiq Jan

Australia (Playing XI): Mitchell Marsh(c), Travis Head, Cameron Green, Tim David, Josh Inglis(w), Matt Renshaw, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Xavier Bartlett, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa

Australia have won the toss and have opted to field

Rohit: "Why did they even bring Smith in if they didn't plan on playing him?" -- It is a little puzzling, but there was a school of thought that he was being brought in as cover for Marsh. And since Marsh has returned to the eleven now, Smith perhaps became redundant.

Sowmya : "Very very bold statement from the Oman captain. Had Oman been in some sort of form that would have added pressure on the Aussies. Dont see the aussies losing tonight" -- Well, Australia will be chasing tonight and they have not won this World Cup while doing that (yet)...

Arun: "Was expecting Smith to come in for Green.Is Smith only a replacement for openers?" -- Possibly. Almost all of his recent success in the BBL has come as an opener for the Sydney Sixers.

Chander : "Not playing Smith and continuing with Green because Smith wasn't part of their "prepartion" for this Worldcup is like India not playing Kishan because Sanju Samson was part of their preparation."

Deepankar DM: "Never been too convinced with Marsh as captain. He has delivered two terrible World Cups, one being knocked out by Afghanistan in Super 8s and the next knocked out by SL and Zim in group stage." -- That, among other things, will be under the scanner as Australia dissect what has been a disastrous campaign.

Saving grâce for Australia, easy win in their last match

Australia need 31 runs in 83 balls