Clarkson debuts as New Zealand bat; Australia leave out Smith

Big-hitting Josh Clarkson will make his T20I debut as New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and elected to bat against a near full-strength Australia in the series-opener at Sky Stadium.

Steven Smith was overlooked for Australia with allrounder Matthew Short selected and listed to bat at No. 7.

Clarkson has been named at No. 6 for New Zealand with speedster Lockie Ferguson returning from injury having missed the Super Smash final for Auckland.

New Zealand are in good form in the format having defeated Pakistan 4-1 at home last month. Santner is captaining in the series in place of Kane Williamson who's awaiting the birth of his third child.

New Zealand are also without injured quick Matt Henry, while allrounder Daryl Mitchell is recovering from a foot injury.

Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Travis Head return after missing Australia's recent 2-1 T20I series victory over West Indies.

With Josh Hazlewood and legspinner Adam Zampa also in the line-up, Australia will field their full-strength frontline attack as Starc and Cummins return having been rested since Australia's home Test summer wrapped up late last month.

Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade is on paternity leave and will miss this match with Josh Inglis to take the gloves. Inglis will bat at No. 5, while Head opens as expected alongside David Warner.

With the T20 World Cup just over three months away, the three-match series is the final preparation for both teams as they look to settle on squads for the tournament to be played in the United States and the Caribbean.

The trans-Tasman rivals will be fighting for the Chappell-Hadlee trophy, which had previously only been awarded to the winner of bilateral ODI series between the teams.

New Zealand: 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Mark Chapman, 6 Josh Clarkson, 7 Mitchell Santner (capt), 8 Tim Southee, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Lockie Ferguson

Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 David Warner, 3 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Josh Inglis (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Short, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood