Watching the thrilling finish to England's match against South Africa earlier this week, I couldn't help but get excited about what lies ahead for Australia at this ICC Champions Trophy.

Slower balls and yorkers are standard offerings for a bowler late in the innings, but England's Mark Wood conceded just four runs from the final over of the match by essentially bowling really fast bouncers. It was great to see someone embracing something different and it also got me really excited for Australia to unleash their four 'Nasty Fasties' over the coming weeks.

The Aussies have three genuinely quick bowlers available in Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and James Pattinson, who all bowl around the same pace, and then you throw in the quality of Josh Hazlewood.

I think the temptation to play all four of them in the same XI is difficult to ignore.

Cummins focused on bowling, not body

And I think the Aussies will be tempted as well because those quicks can also contribute with the bat. For years, James Faulkner and John Hastings have done so well in that No.8 role as a bowler who can contribute with the bat as well. But instead you could go in with those four Nasty Fasties batting at numbers 8 to 11, knowing that Starc, Pattinson and Cummins can all clear the fence and do a job down the order.

Particularly given Australia's two Group A matches at Edgbaston (against New Zealand and England) start at 10.30am local time, which historically can be a hard time for a batting side early on, the temptation to play all four and have a real crack at the opposition will be really strong.

You could play those four quicks and then easily get 10 overs out of a combination of Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell, who are both off-spinners but are also slightly different bowlers.

Head primed for first chance in big tournament

Obviously that would mean Hastings misses out, which is so tough on him because his record for Australia has been phenomenal. Selection will always be based on conditions and there's no doubt spin will play a role later in the tournament, and some pitches might be conducive to Hasto's style of bowling as well. He's missed out a couple of times before when the big quicks have all been ready to go, but that's not a slight on him at all. It's simply what happens when you're trying to fit 12 really good cricketers into 11.

There are always battles for certain positions within squads and with Chris Lynn publicly stating he wanted to have a crack at opening and Travis Head doing well there in the past, I felt it put a little bit of pressure on Aaron Finch to justify his place at the top of the order. And I thought he responded perfectly with his hundred in the warm-up game against Sri Lanka.

I certainly think a Finch-Warner opening partnership is Australia's best combination at the top. They're a pretty formidable duo with an outstanding record and I don't think there are many attacks around the world that get excited about bowling to them. So I was really thrilled for Finchy to put that issue to bed as early as possible and not go into the tournament with it hanging over his head.

Finch flays furious century

While I'm happy that Finchy will open, I'd love to see Chris Lynn unleashed in the middle order. Travis Head has shown a pretty good capacity to build an innings and Glenn Maxwell has at times as well, so I'd be tempted to bat those guys at No.4 and No.5 respectively and give Lynny a really clear role to bat at No.6 and not worry too much about easing into his innings.

Batting him at six should mean he can come out and go as hard as he wants from ball one. And again, knowing you'd have someone like Mitchell Starc or Pat Cummins batting at No.10, I don't think Lynny will be too worried about starting his innings slowly. He'd go in with a pretty clear licence to play the way he plays best, which is a pretty exciting proposition.

Maxi's blog with Chris Lynn

On a personal level, I obviously would love to be playing at this tournament myself, but I'm also pretty comfortable with not being there. The best part of playing for Australia is playing in the bigger tournaments and there's always something really special about playing in England as well. But with the way the team looks, a bloke like Lynny has probably taken my spot and I can't begrudge him that. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do as much as the next man on the street. The thought of Lynny going nuts in that middle order is just really, really exciting.

My Australian XI for the Champions Trophy: David Warner, Aaron Finch, Steve Smith (c), Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Lynn, Matthew Wade (wk), James Pattinson, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood

My semi-final predictions

It's hard to predict the four semi-finalists because you're putting a line through four teams that have no real weaknesses and are capable of doing really well. But if I had to pick, I'd go with Australia and England from Group A, and India and South Africa from Group B.

There's a bit of expectation on England going into this tournament because they've been so strong over the past two years, especially at home. They've really re-defined the way they play their 50-over cricket and a lot of past players have come out and said this is England's greatest one-day team ever. And the icing on the cake is they're playing at home, which I think always adds that extra little bit of expectation.

But the beauty of the Champions Trophy and why I love it so much is the fact that there's no easy games. One little slip-up can cost you so dearly and it only takes one washed out game to really hurt you. That's certainly what happened to us here four years ago – we lost our first game and when the second one was washed out, we were in big trouble.

So while there's high expectations on England both within the group and publicly as well, this is a really difficult tournament to win.

Champions Trophy 2017 Guide

AUSTRALIA SQUAD: Steve Smith (c), David Warner, Pat Cummins, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Glenn Maxwell, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa

Other squads: Every Champions Trophy squad

Group A: Australia, New Zealand, England, Bangladesh.

Group B: India, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Pakistan.

Schedule

Warm-up matches

26 May – Australia d Sri Lanka by two wickets, The Oval

27 May – Bangladesh lost to Pakistan by two wickets, Edgbaston

28 May – India d New Zealand by 45 runs (D/L Method), The Oval

29 May – Australia v Pakistan no result, Edgbaston

30 May – New Zealand d Sri Lanka by six wickets, Edgbaston

30 May – India d Bangladesh by 240 runs, The Oval

Tournament

1 June – England v Bangladesh, The Oval (Day)

2 June – Australia v New Zealand, Edgbaston (D)

3 June – Sri Lanka v South Africa, The Oval (D)

4 June – India v Pakistan, Edgbaston (D)

5 June – Australia v Bangladesh, The Oval (D/N)

6 June – England v New Zealand, Cardiff (D)

7 June – Pakistan v South Africa, Edgbaston (D/N)

8 June – India v Sri Lanka, The Oval (D)

9 June – New Zealand v Bangladesh, Cardiff (D)

10 June – England v Australia, Edgbaston (D)

11 June – India v South Africa, The Oval (D)

12 June – Sri Lanka v Pakistan, Cardiff (D)

14 June – First semi-final (A1 v B2), Cardiff (D)

15 June – Second semi-final (A2 v B1), Edgbaston (D)

18 June – Final, The Oval (D)

19 June – Reserve day (D)