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AAP
AAP
Sport
Justin Chadwick

Tim David ready for England speed demon

Australia batsman Tim David says he won't be intimidated by Mark Wood's speed at the MCG on Friday. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

Australia will adopt a no-fear approach when they attempt to keep their T20 World Cup title hopes alive against England's speed demon Mark Wood on Friday night.

Wood regularly clocked more than 150km/h in Saturday's win over Afghanistan, while Sam Curran snared 5-10 in that same match to register his country's best ever T20 international bowling figures.

England's World Cup hopes are on the ropes following Wednesday's shock five-run loss to Ireland, meaning their pool match against Australia now shapes as an elimination final for both sides.

Wood, who snared 3-34 against Ireland, looms as a key figure at the MCG, but Australia power hitter Tim David isn't fretting.

"No it's not fear at all, it's instinct," David said of facing up to Wood's thunderbolts.

"It's tough to walk out for your first few balls and face someone bowling fast.

"You've got to be switched on, and that's a challenge."

Spinner Ashton Agar made a welcome return to the Australian line-up in Tuesday night's seven-wicket win over Sri Lanka after Adam Zampa was struck down by COVID-19.

Zampa is a chance to return against England.

But if he misses a second straight game Australia will have full faith in Agar, who returned the excellent figures of 1-25 off four overs.

Australia's title hopes will effectively end if they lose to England, but Agar is confident of what the group can achieve.

"We don't even think about losing games to be honest," Agar said.

"This team gels so well together, we just think how we're going to go out there and try to win the game from any situation.

"It's a beautiful place to be in as a team. We have great belief in the guys out there in those moments.

"It's an experienced group who really enjoys the big moments."

Agar's participation in the tournament was in some doubt after suffering two side strains in recent months.

The 29-year-old revealed he only started feeling good again a few weeks ago.

"I've had a couple of side strains, obviously a bad one in Sri Lanka which was probably the sorest I've been out on the cricket field. I couldn't even run," Agar said.

"It was a good eight weeks before I was back from that and then I niggled my other side in India as well.

"When you have sore sides and not a lot of confidence in your body coming back from that, you can fall into bad movement patterns.

"So it was about trying to groove those patterns again.

"I was feeling pretty average up until about two weeks ago and then it all just started to slowly click into gear."

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