T20 World Cup Live: Stoinis, Warner power Australia to 164/5 against Oman

Australia vs Oman T20 World Cup Live Score: Oman captain Aqib Ilyas won the toss and opted to bowl first against Australia in their Group B game at the T20 World Cup at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Wednesday.

Beaten in a Super Over in their opening encounter by Namibia at the same venue three days earlier, Oman made two changes to their starting 11 with Pratik Athavale taking over the double role as opening batsman and wicketkeeper while Shoaib Khan earns a spot in the middle-order.

Seeking to become the first nation to hold all three global cricket titles – Test, One-Day and T20 – simultaneously, Australia opted to omit their Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins in preference for Nathan Ellis.

The T20 trophy evaded Australia for the longest time but the maiden title in 2021 changed that. However, a year later, they failed to progress from the league stage on home soil.

However, Australia have no dearth of match-winners in their squad, starting from newly-appointed skipper Mitchell Marsh. The all-rounder will be a key factor batting at No.3. Travis Head has been in red-hot form and was the side’s star performer in the WTC final and ODI World Cup final.

Australia might experiment in the group stage to find their best XI. Leg-spinner Adam Zampa will play a crucial role while left-arm spinner Ashton Agar is also expected to be in the mix.

The ever-reliable trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood will run the pace unit.

Oman lost their opening game after against Namibia. While they did a commendable job with the ball by taking the match into the Super Over, the batters will have to be more responsible if they want to pull off an upset win over the mighty Australians.