T 20 Australia v Pakistan LIve match

The World T20 2014 kick-starts for Australia with their opening game against Pakistan to be played on Sunday in Dhaka and you can follow the live coverage of the entire game starting at 8.30 pm AEST.

The one title missing from the Australian cabinets is the World T20 and given the composition of their side – and more vitally, the form they have shown – it’s only fair to say this could be their best chance yet.

The format of the competition dictates every team to play four games in their second round after an opening round bye and win at least three of those games to almost seal off the semi-finals berth.

The Australian confidence will be sky-high from their performances across all three formats in recent times but in a way this could be one of their final frontiers.

Through the times they have won those matches against England and South Africa, the pitches have been to their liking, with ample bounce and pace. That made it easier for both, the speedsters and the top-order batsmen.

The surfaces in Bangladesh will poses a different challenge. Not only will their pace bowlers need to adjust quickly enough to the slowish nature of the tracks, it’s the manner in which the batsmen take on the slow bowlers that will make for an interesting viewing as well.

Australia had the first taste of what they could expect in the main tournament during their only warm-up game against the Kiwis. While the batsmen did manage to get to 200, the bowlers did not feel too comfortable defending that total and New Zealand almost got there in the end.

And they will be up against Pakistan in their opener, a side which has a plethora of slow bowlers to test out the Aussie batsmen.

Saeed Ajmal, Shahid Afridi and Mohammd Hafeez were the three frontline spinners they played against India and it won’t be a surprise if Pakistan decide to bring in an extra option for this one.

It did look like selecting three medium-pacers on that Dhaka pitch was a luxury for a team that is rich in its slow bowling options. It could serve Pakistan well if they played an extra batsman or even a fourth spinner instead.

Pakistan started off poorly against arch-rivals India. It seemed like they never arrived for this one and allowed the pressure to get the better of them.

On a track that admittedly assisted slow bowling, Pakistan had had the start that should have allowed them to get to more than 140. Instead they botched up the run-making in the last five overs and finished way short.

And their batting showing has generally been poor in recent times, as exemplified by the way they crashed out to 71 all out in their warm-up game against South Africa. Whether that can change against a strong pace attack but one that does not have too much depth in their slow bowling resources remains to be seen.

Australian captain George Bailey has already announced they won’t play both their frontline spinners, Brad Hogg and James Muirhead, while James Faulkner has been ruled out of this one. These two aside, only one of Brad Hodge or Cameron White will make it to the starting 11, while Daniel Christian could also sit out.

Another loss for Pakistan here will almost knock them out of the competition while Australia can take up a joint top-spot with India for a while if they win.

Join me for this World T20 2014 game between Australia and Pakistan on Sunday and you can follow the live score of this game from 8.30pm local time and post your comments below.