New Zealand chose to fight back Australia
Clarkson has been named in New Zealand’s No.6 with paceman Lockie Ferguson returning from injury having missed the Super Smash final for Auckland.
New Zealand are in good form in the format as they defeated Pakistan 4-1 at home last month. Sudner captains the series in place of Kane Williamson who is expecting the birth of his third child.
New Zealand are also without injured quick Matt Henry while allrounder Daryl Mitchell is recovering from a leg injury.
Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Travis Head return after missing Australia’s recent 2-1 T20I series win over the West Indies.
With Josh Hazlewood and legspinner Adam Zampa also in the line-up, Australia will field a full-strength front-line attack as Starc and Cummins return having been rested since Australia’s end-of-the-summer Test at the end of last month.
Wicketkeeper Matthew Wade is on paternity leave and will miss this match with Josh Inglis to take the gloves. Inglis will bat at No.5, while Head opens as expected alongside David Warner.
With the T20 World Cup just over three months away, the three-match series is the final warm-up for both teams as they try to agree squads for the tournament to be held in the United States and the Caribbean.
The trans-Tasman rivals will compete for the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, which was previously only awarded to the winner of the bilateral ODI series between the teams.
New Zealand: 1 Finn Allen, 2 Devon Conway (wk), 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Glenn Phillips, 5 Mark Chapman, 6 Josh Clarkson, 7 Mitchell Sudner (capt), 8 Tim Southee, 9 Adam Milne, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Lockie Ferguson
Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 David Warner, 3 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Josh Inglis (wk), 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Short, 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood