England VS Australia T20I: England's T20I win over Australia confirms they are favourites ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022

Not only have they won their last two series before the tournament, one of those two series wins came against the hosts and defending the world champions – Australia. 

The series victory came in Australia – meaning England has not only gotten acclimatised to the conditions where the tournament will be played but has also learnt how to win in said conditions. 

It helps that Australian and English wickets are similar as far as white-ball cricket is concerned. Both nations produce tracks with true bounce, which don't change too much for the shorter formats. 

This means that batting on those tracks can be easy, whereas bowlers can and should be wary of the fact that they will go for runs. 

Nevertheless, England has shown remarkable resilience to win the three-match series with a game to spare. What's more, both of the games have been close victories – and both wins came by the same margin of eight runs. 

It also shows that England has learnt how to eke out close wins. During their seven-match against Pakistan, England lost two games by a relatively narrow margin. 

Of course, it is also worth noting that both those games lost in Pakistan came while they were batting second, while in Australia, they batted first. So it remains to be seen if that weakness is entirely gone. 

Still, it is hard to see England as anything but favourites going into the tournament. Their transition from former white-ball skipper Eoin Morgan to current skipper Jos Buttler has been smooth – perhaps helped by the fact that Buttler hasn't looked to change too much about England's approach since it is primarily working. 

But England's personnel for the shortest format is also enough to make any team shiver. Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, Jos Buttler, and Liam Livingstone have a power-packed top order. 

Their all-around options are also enviable – Sam Curran and Moeen Ali have been playing regularly. At the same time, a returning Ben Stokes adds depth to their batting, bowling, and fielding. 

There's also David Willey and Chris Woakes, who sometimes fly under the radar in this format but whose presence is vital to England's gameplan. 

Their bowlers also bring variety – Reece Topley is a tricky left-arm pacer, Chris Jordan has variations for days and is a wicket-taker in this format, whereas Mark Wood is the extreme pace option. 

Adil Rashid is the only pure spinning option in the team, but he's a proven performer in this format and was also a vital part of the 2019 World Cup-winning side. 

There is, of course, also a point of view that this might be a wake-up call for Australia. They've now lost an away series to India and a home series to England. 

But it is worth noting that both of these series losses have been close ones, and Australia was not in great form going into the World Cup last year either. 

That being said, the hosts will be keen to win the final T20I and acquiesce themselves better in the three-match ODI series that follows to go into the tournament with some momentum.