The last time New Zealand faced Australia in a T20I, the opening pair of Finn Allen and Devon Conway were the stars of the show to launch their World Cup campaign at the SCG in 2022. Allen thundered his way to 42 off 16 balls inside the powerplay and the hosts never recovered with Conway then marshalling the rest of the innings with an unbeaten 92.
Right now, however, fortunes for the pair have diverged. Allen's stock is on the rise after a prolific T20I series against Pakistan where he made 275 runs at 55.00 and a strike rate of 195.03, including 137 off 62 balls with a record-equalling 16 sixes. Conway, meanwhile, is enduring the first prolonged slump of his career.
His last eight T20I innings - albeit over a span of more than 12 months - have brought a top score of 20. Across all formats, the lean run perhaps highlights a greater concern: since his unbeaten 152 against England in the ODI World Cup he hasn't passed fifty in 20 international innings. In his last 12, his highest score is 29.
During the recent Test series against South Africa, local media asked if there were any problems with Conway's eyes, with reports that he had struggled in Bangladesh when struck down with an illness, but head coach Gary Stead said there were no problems in that regard.
"He was sick … but his eyes are fine now," Stead said after the Hamilton Test. "I wasn't over there [in Bangladesh] so I don't know for absolute sure. All our batsmen get their eyes checked reasonably regularly just to make sure, and he has no problems with his vision. He's seen eye people, so I'm sure he's had them tested."
Mitchell Santner - who will captain in the T20I series, in place of Kane Williamson who's awaiting the birth of his third child - highlighted the significance of the contrasting roles Allen and Conway play with an eye on the T20 World Cup in June, so there may be some nervousness if Conway can't arrest his slump. Just to add to Conway's load, he will need to keep wicket in this series following Tim Seifert's injury.
"He's good. That's the nature of the game, it's quite fickle at times, and he still looks like he's striking it well, just needs that one innings to turn it around and he'll be away again," Santner said. "There are no technical flaws or anything in his game, it's just [about] when you [can] get a couple away so hopefully that's this series.
Allen, who currently has the second-highest strike rate for anyone with more than 1000 T20I runs, and Conway have opened together 21 times in T20Is, second for New Zealand behind only the 25 innings of Martin Guptill and Colin Munro.
"Someone who can take the game away from you at the start is pretty important," Santner said of Allen's role. "We know that power game he's got and in that last series he showed that if he does get going he can singlehandedly win a game for us. It's trying to generate the strike rate in the powerplay, it's the best time to bat, then cash in if you can after that.
"Think the combo between Conway and Finn is a good one - Conway likes to have a little look then Finn, obviously, doesn't. It's that kind of combo we are banking on for the World Cup. Then Kane and guys like that come in after that."
If Conway wants to look for positive omens, his career-best 99 not out also came Australia in Christchurch in 2021. While he searches for a return to the sort of form that saw him averaging 57.38 in T20Is after that Sydney innings at the 2022 World Cup, Allen hopes to have a similar impact during this three-match series.
The attack will be very similar with Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa all part of this tour. From that whole Australia XI, only three players will definitely not be on show in Wellington: Aaron Finch (retired), Marcus Stoinis (injured) and Matthew Wade (paternity leave for the first match).
"We wanted to strike first against them, that's what we talked about, that mantra of throwing the first punch," Allen said of his SCG display. "Obviously it worked well that day for the team, so hopefully we can go into it [here] with a similar mindset. A little bit of individual success is always nice, [you] take that confidence going forward, but I have no doubt they are going to come out firing at us this series and it should be a good challenge."
Mitchell Marsh, Australia's captain for this series and likely the T20 World Cup too, was part of the team in Sydney when Allen left his mark. "Finn is an outstanding talent and as we've seen his record over the past 12 months, especially at home in New Zealand, he can take the game away from you in that powerplay," Marsh said. "So the onus is on us to try and take a few wickets in the powerplay and put them on the back foot."