Warner back at No. 3, Cummins back with a bang

David Warner will return for Australia batting at No. 3 when he and Steve Smith pad up for the national team for the first time since the ball tampering saga in South Africa on Monday.

Warner and Smith were selected in coach Justin Langer's 12-man line up to face New Zealand and will bat in the afternoon after captain Aaron Finch won the toss and bowled first.

With the bowlers given first action Pat Cummins' preparation for his first World Cup got off to a golden start, with the strike bowler taking two wickets from his first three balls against the Kiwis.

Cummins had the figures of 2/1 halfway through the first over after removing openers George Worker and then Henry Nicholls.

Cummins bowled Worker and then found the edge of Nicholls to rattle the visitors.

It was the vice-captain's first game in five weeks after being sent home from the ODI series against Pakistan to rest up for this year's World Cup and Ashes series in England.

Former captain Smith started at field slip while Warner weighed in at discussions between the bowlers and captain Aaron Finch.

Cummins and Jason Behrendorff took the new balls at Allan Border Field although New Zealand World Cup squad member Tom Blundell mounted a fightback after the early Cummins blows.

Blundell - one of just five World Cup-bound Kiwis in Brisbane - heaved a six off Benhrendorff to score 20 of his country's 24 runs in the first eight overs.

Behrendorff and Cummins were both given four overs before being replaced by Nathan Coulter-Nile and Kane Richardson.

Mitchell Starc was left out despite his impressive training form.

Richardson was not selected in Australia's 15-man World Cup squad but is on standby should namesake Jhye Richardson fail to overcome his dislocated right shoulder.

Finch opted to stick with the opening combination of himself and Usman Khawaja that averaged 91.8 runs during Australia's eight-match winning streak.

Australia experimented with Warner at No. 3 in the 2016 Twenty20 World Cup in India but that failed miserably as the team failed to progress beyond the group stage.

Smith was selected at No. 4 today while Adam Zampa was picked ahead of Nathan Lyon as the sole spinner.

New Zealand's team is a shadow of that which will contest the World Cup, with just Henry Nicholls, Jimmy Neesham, Tom Latham, Matt Henry and Tom Blundell in Brisbane and also booked on the plane to the UK.

TEAMS

Australia

Aaron Finch (C)

Usman Khawaja

David Warner

Steve Smith

Shaun Marsh

Marcus Stoinis

Alex Carey (wk)

Nathan Coulter-Nile

Pat Cummins

Jason Behrendorff

Adam Zampa

Kane Richardson

New Zealand

George Worker

Henry Nicholls

Will Young

Tom Latham

Jimmy Neesham

Tom Blundell

David Mitchell

Todd Astle

Doug Bracewell

Matt Henry

Hamish Bennett