With Afridi ready to bowl his toe-crushing yorkers, what could go wrong for Pakistan?
Warner was dropped from the playing XI by his IPL franchise SunRisers Hyderabad and there were some who questioned his selection in the Australian line-up.
Australia remain optimistic about their Twenty20 World Cup campaign despite being shown up in all facets by India in the opening two matches of their current series. With Steve Smith leading an advanced party to New Zealand for the forthcoming ODI series, the Australians have made more changes to their XI, with Shane Watson to lead the side after skipper Aaron Finch suffered a hamstring injury in Friday night's second T20 defeat. In-form top-order batsman Usman Khawaja comes into the squad as Finch's replacement, and will likely open the batting alongside Shaun Marsh. Finch is awaiting scan results and the Australia camp is bullish he will be able to return before the start of the World Cup in India on March 8.
Australia's T20 wicketkeeper Mathew Wade also spoke in favour of Tim David. He said that no doubt he will play for the Australian side and has the potential to be anything.
IMAGES from the 3rd ODI between India and Australia played in Bengaluru on Sunday
Smith said he did not regard his injury as a major issue.
Images from the World Cup match between Australia and New Zealand at Lord's on Saturday.
All-rounder James Faulkner became the sixth Australian cricketer to claim a hat-trick in one-day internationals, achieving the feat in the second match against Sri Lanka on Wednesday. The 26-year-old left-arm bowler got his first wicket when he trapped Kusal Perera leg-before with the final delivery of his eighth over.
South Africa thrashed Australia by six wickets to take a 1-0 lead in their three-match One-day International series at Perth Stadium on Sunday.
Australia, who are searching for their maiden T20 title, enter the tournament on the back of a horrific run, losing bilateral series to Bangladesh, West Indies, New Zealand, India and England.
India captain Virat Kohli and pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah were the only two Indians who found a place in Wisden's T20 International team of the decade, which didn't feature ex-skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Australia's limited overs captain Aaron Finch was named captain of the team, which has two more Australian in Shane Watson and Glenn Maxwell, two England cricketers -- Jos Buttler and David Willey, two Afghanistan all-rounders -- Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan, and New Zealand's Colin Munro and Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga.
The 25-year-old with the signature slingshot action helped rout Australia for 151 soon after tea in their reply to India's declared first innings total of 443 for seven..
he win gave England an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series providing a boost to their confidence ahead of the World Cup, which kicks off with the qualifying group stages on Sunday.
The defending champions won their opening two games against Afghanistan and West Indies.
Steve Smith will lead Australia against India in the upcoming three-match ODI series as regular captain Pat Cummins, who lost his mother recently, will not return for the white-ball contest.
The 16 skippers made history, coming together in Melbourne for the first time at a T20 World Cup.
Cricket Australia imposed a two-year captaincy ban on him for his involvement in the sandpaper gate, ball-tampering scandal in 2018.
Sri Lanka's Chamika Karunaratne picked up three wickets, including the crucial one of Glenn Maxwell, to trigger an Australian collapse as the hosts won the rain-hit second one-day international by 26 runs.
Delhi Capitals coach Ricky Ponting has promised his premier spinner Ravichandran Ashwin that he would speak to the ICC about imposing a run-penalty on teams whose batsmen back up too far at the non-striker's end.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji present Rediff.com's Most Valuable Player Index after 37 World Cup 2023 games.
The T20 World Cup is set to be played in October-November, with Australia beginning their title defence
Australia made heavy weather of a modest chase before beating Sri Lanka by three wickets in the second Twenty20 International on Wednesday to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Australia are yet to hit their stride, but that's exactly why the rest should worry, says former Aussie great Allan Border.
Travis Head made 109 off 67 balls and Warner struck a 65-ball 81 as the Aussies opening pair amassed 175 runs in just 19.1 overs
Team India possess a much more balanced squad in the shortest format.
India's vacant cupboard of all-rounders will give Virat Kohli and Ravi Shastri numerous points to ponder.
Kane Richardson will take his place in the 15-man squad for the tour, which starts with two Twenty20 matches later this month and is being used a warm-up for their World Cup title defence in England.
Australia opener David Warner laughed off concerns about his form on his 35th birthday on Wednesday but said he had reverted to practising on synthetic wickets and polished concrete to sharpen his batting at the Twenty20 World Cup.
Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli slammed half-centuries as India edged Australia by six wickets in the third and final T20 International in Hyderabad on Sunday, to claim the series 2-1.
Images from Monday's IPL match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians, in Dubai.
Once again, it was the teacher's son from Vadodara, that mysterious practitioner of lethal magic at the death who ensured that Rohit Sharma's side ended the night an improbable fourth on the IPL points table.
IMAGES from the 1st T20I played between India and Australia in Mohali on Tuesday.
Former England captain Nasser Hussain praised Malan for his versatile style and consistency.
The visitors chose to bat first and set West Indies a target of 190 after Marsh struck six sixes and four boundaries, while skipper Aaron Finch scored 53 runs off 37 balls.
Josh Hazlewood was the pick of Australia's bowlers, taking 3-22 in addition to his miserly Super Over, capping a brilliant weekend for the 31-year-old after he was bought for $1 million in the Indian Premier League auction on Saturday.
Kohli, thus, became the 12th batsman and third Indian after Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid to reach 20,000 international runs.
Captain Joe Root confirmed his participation in the five-Test series at the meeting and will likely be joined by a full-strength squad.
Jos Buttler made an unbeaten half-century as England shrugged off Clint McKay's hat-trick to win the fourth one-day international against Australia by three wickets on Saturday to set up a series decider on Monday.
Australia skipper Aaron Finch on Monday said it will take a very brave man to write Virat Kohli off and what the former India captain has achieved in the last 15 years is just 'ridiculous'.
Becomes fourth-highest run-scorer in T20 cricket.
