Australia's Wade relishing England series

Wade is confident Australia's warm-up programme

SOUTHAMPTON (AFP) - Australia batsman Matthew Wade has no doubt the squad will be ready to face England in their opening Twenty20 international despite a rain-affected first warm-up game.

Wade, however, managed to smash 36 off 18 overs, including three sixes off one Andrew Tye over, before a downpour at the Ageas Bowl brought the match to a halt.

At that stage, Pat Cummins  XI to 60 without loss in their pursuit of 151 against Australia captain Aaron Finch s XI.

"Even though it was 15 or 16 overs (short), it was still nice to just blow the cobwebs away a little bit," said Wade.

"The next three or four games will be important for guys to get overs in, people to get their runs and put their hands up for selection.

"It s exciting just to be back on tour and running out there with the boys again."

The coronavirus outbreak means Australia have not played a white-ball match since facing New Zealand at Sydney in March.

But Wade is confident Australia s warm-up programme -- their next intra-squad match is on Sunday -- will allow them to hit the ground running against an England side who will come into the series on the back of three T20s against Pakistan in Manchester.

Finch was in the runs Friday with 40, while fellow opener David Warner made 42.

"England s great at having hotels on the grounds and we can go out there and access an oval," added Wade.

"Just to stand there in the middle with no nets around you is valuable. Especially for the bowlers, they obviously haven t had a lot of match practice.

"It s all good bowling in the nets, but then to go and stand in the field is always the hardest part, so these matches are vital for us."

The three-match T20 series starts at September 4, with three one-day internationals between England, the 50-over world champions, and Australia following later in the month.

Australia selector George Bailey said the tourists already had an eye on the 2023 50-over World Cup in India.

"It s a funny little time in the schedule given the removal of the Champions Trophy, it s a big break between World Cups

"So we ve used the last couple of months to start to have a think around the strategy and philosophy that will hopefully hold us in good stead leading up to the World Cup in India in 2023, and we will start to slowly implement that," Bailey said.