Australia will begin their tour of New Zealand with a T20I game at Wellington on Friday. It is a 2 T20Is, five ODIs and a two Test match tour of New Zealand that the Aussies will be embarking on and will test the Aussies a little more than their games back home against Pakistan and West Indies.

The Kiwis had warmed up for this who series rather well against Bangladesh, but they will know that Bangladesh and Australia are two different kettles of fish. For starters, the Aussies have begun to exhibit the same touch that had seen them reign at the top with their number one position for years, and have not lost a single game this summer.

They beat Pakistan 5-0 in the ODIs, 3-0 in the Tests and won that solitary T20I. Against West Indies, there was one draw, but they still managed a 2-0 in Tests, 4-0 in ODIs and then a couple of easy T20Is which gave them a near 100% record back home.

Of course, the T20Is first up will be an advantage given that they have only just played two T20Is against West Indies and are in full flow thanks to that. Dave Warner is in the form of his life and despite the questions on the legality of his switch-hit, he will be the one that the Kiwis will look to get out as quickly as they can in order to get into the middle-order.

Apart from Warner, Shane Watson will look to make his impressions on tour after he had earlier won the Allan Border medal for his consistent form throughout the world. New Zealand is the one country where he hasn't really had too many chances and despite the conditions in that country, he will know that in T20Is, it will not be as bad as it is perceived.

Comparing the two bowling sides, there is not much doubt that the Aussies are much stronger than their Kiwi counterparts. Mitchell Johnson has been around to add the experience touch, but apart from that, it will be interesting to see how the Kiwi batsmen of the likes of Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor play against Shaun Tait and Dirk Nannes. Both, Nannes and Tait have been able to extract a lot of pace and swing from the wickets back in Australia, and if anything it will only get better in New Zealand for the pair.

The surprising news is that Nathan Hauritz has been picked for the T20Is, and will feature as the number one spinner ahead of Steve Smith, despite not playing a single T20I back home. To me, it looks like the Aussie side is head and shoulders above the Kiwis, but the New Zealanders will need to try and surprise them at regular intervals to be able to hope to win the game.

Tag :- Australia   Dave Warner   Martin Guptill   Mitchell Johnson   Nathan Hauritz   New Zealand   Shane Watson