Blackcaps stand-in captain Tom Latham expects Australia to be at their best when the old rivals meet at the World Cup in Dharamshala on Saturday, despite the record five-times champions making a stuttering start to their campaign.
The Australians side are fourth in the standings with six points from five matches after three consecutive victories, including a demolition of the Netherlands last time out.
"They're obviously playing some fantastic cricket at the moment," Latham said.
"They didn't probably start as well as they would have liked, but I think the form they've shown in probably the last three games is obviously the Australia that we know.
"They fight till the end pretty much every time and I guess every time we play each other it's always a challenge. They're a quality side, one of the best sides in the world for a reason and you certainly can't take them lightly."
Runners-up in 2019, New Zealand, third in the standings, have only lost to hosts India at the tournament.
"I think we've shown throughout this tournament that we've seen plenty of teams that on their given day can beat anyone," Latham said.
"And Australia are no different. So, we're expecting them to be at their best and hopefully we can play well as well and hopefully be a great game."
Australia want to carry their more aggressive batting and bowling from recent games into the clash with their old rivals, says captain Pat Cummins.
"Our group's big on talking about the style that we want to play, and I think in the first two games not only did we not win, but I think we didn't really nail the style that we wanted to play," Cummins said.
"I think in the last few games, you've seen us be a bit more aggressive - batting and bowling.
"Bowling - everyone's been really open-minded, tried different things; trying bounces, different fields, one over spells, and it's just been a real buy-in from the whole team, and yeah, it's been fantastic last few games.
"That's a standard we want to keep going with for the rest of tournament."
So far in India, the Blackcaps have defeated reigning champions England, the Netherlands, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
"We've played a lot of cricket with these guys (New Zealand) and some of them are really good mates of some of our players," Cummins said.
"So, yeah, if anything, it makes you want to beat your mates even more. But yeah, it'll be intense out there."
The right-arm fast bowler added that Travis Head and Marcus Stoinis' availability for the match would be determined after assessing the duo later on Saturday.
Reuters/Newshub.
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