Gros Islet (St Lucia): A rampant Australia will be wary of Scotland's threat when the two teams clash in a crucial Group B encounter in the T20 World Cup here with the outcome set to influence Super Eight qualification. With Australia having already booked one spot for the Super Eight from Group B, Scotland and England are in the race for the second position.
Scotland will go through if they beat Australia or even if their contest is washed out, but in case of a defeat to the Mitchell Marsh-led side and England winning against Namibia hours earlier, the Scot would miss the bus. For England, a win over Namibia is a must and if the Australians do them a favour by beating Scotland, chances will only brighten up. A washout in the England-Namibia game in the same group will see Scotland go through.
Australia have been in top form with hardly any serious concern. Nathan Ellis is expected to continue featuring in their playing XI since the Australians tend to rest one of their big three fast bowlers Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc in such contests. Hazlewood had earlier mentioned Australia manipulating their approach against Scotland to keep England's threat at bay, but Jos Buttler's team have done themselves a massive favour by improving their Net Run Rate immensely with a dominant victory over Oman.
For the Scots, beating former champions Australia is a hell of an opportunity in Michael Leask's words and they would want to give their best, or maybe even hope that rain gods do them a favour, since they are still second on the points table with five points compared to England's three.
Squads
Australia: Mitchell Marsh (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Tim David, Nathan Ellis, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Josh Inglis (wk), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade (wk), David Warner and Adam Zampa.
Scotland: Richie Berrington (c), Matthew Cross, Brad Currie, Chris Greaves, Oli Hairs, Jack Jarvis, Michael Jones, Michael Leask, Brandon McMullen, George Munsey, Safyaan Sharif, Chris Sole, Charlie Tear, Mark Watt, Brad Wheal.
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