Openers’ return to form faces England test

Australia vice-captain Pat Cummins has backed Aaron Finch to continue building into the Twenty20 World Cup as the skipper and fellow opener David Warner aim to put England to the sword.

Warner grabbed the headlines when he top-scored with 65 in the comfortable win over Sri Lanka, keeping Australia’s unbeaten start intact.

But Finch’s return to form with 37 from 23 balls was just as important for his side’s hopes of going deep into the tournament as they chase a first T20 crown.

The 34-year-old’s knock was his best in four months and ended his short spell of patchy form with the bat since recovering from knee surgery.

Finch and Warner combined for a 70-run stand, including 63 runs in the highest opening powerplay score of the tournament so far, sounding a warning to England ahead of Sunday morning’s (AEDT) heavyweight clash.

“He’s done really well to come back from injury and hasn’t played a heap of cricket over the last few months, but I thought he looked fantastic (against Sri Lanka),” Cummins said of Finch.

“He was taking the game on with a couple of his trademark big hits down the ground.

“It was a wonderful opening partnership with those two showing how good they are, and they’re going to be huge for us.”

Warner had endured a run of poor T20 form before breaking the shackles against Sri Lanka.

The powerful left-hander shapes as one of the biggest hurdles in England”s quest to reclaim the Ashes in Australia this summer and is crucial to his own side’s chances of advancing from a difficult Super 12 group to the World Cup semi-finals.

“He’s a big-game player, he likes taking on the big teams,” Cummins said.

“I’m sure tomorrow you’ll see him really puffing his chest out and he’s someone that our whole team really loves playing alongside.

“We all go with him and back him up, and it’s fantastic to see him back in the runs.

“He’s such a good player, we always knew that they weren’t far away.”