The England cricket team will be facing their first major test of the ICC men’s T20 World Cup Super 12 stage group 1 match when they face arch-rivals Australia at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on October 30.

Ahead of, what could be a high-octane encounter, former England cricketer Kevin Pietersen, in a Twitter post, predicted the outcome of the match.

“England will SMASH Australia today!” Pietersen wrote on his official Twitter handle.

During his international career, Pietersen appeared in 104 Tests, 136 ODIs, and 37 T20Is.

In the Tests, he scored 8,181 runs. He averaged 47.28 and 227 was his highest score. He also had a strike rate of 61.72, 23 hundreds and 35 50s.

In the ODIS, the right-handed batsman scored 4,440 runs in 136 matches, striking at 86.58. He hit 9 hundred and 25 half-centuries. His highest score was 130.

In the T20Is, he scored 1,176, striking at 141.51. He averaged 37.93, his highest being 79. He also has 7 half-centuries under his belt.

As far as the match is concerned, it is expected to be a battle for supremacy. England will be coming into the match riding on back-to-back convincing victories against the West Indies and Bangladesh. They hardly broke a sweat in those games but Australia, with victories against South Africa and Sri Lanka, are likely to pose a much tougher challenge.

The Eoin Morgan-led side will have to be wary of a potent Australian side. For them, openers David Warner and Aaron Finch got their form back as they swept aside Sri Lanka comfortably.

Both nations are unbeaten in the T20 World Cup.

Teams (From)

England: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonathan Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Chris Jordan, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Tymal Mills, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Josh Inglis, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

The match begins at 7.30PM IST.