The Australian women's cricket team plan to land some psychological blows when they fine-tune preparation for the T20 World Cup against a side likely to pose a threat in the West Indies.
Although they head to the Caribbean in November as world champions, Australia has struggled against New Zealand in recent times, losing seven of their last nine T20 clashes with their trans-Tasman rivals.
Captain Meg Lanning hopes to redress that imbalance when a three-match series starts at North Sydney Oval on Saturday night.
The teams then head to Brisbane for game two on Monday before Canberra hosts the finale four days later.
Australia are scheduled to play Pakistan in another three-match series next month in Malaysia though the White Ferns are likely to provide a more accurate assessment of how Australia are tracking.
"We're pretty happy with where we're at but I think there's always areas you can improve in and this series will probably throw a few at us that we might need to tweak," she said.
Australia and New Zealand are in the same World Cup pool and will meet in Guyana on November 11.
Lanning appreciated the opportunity for her team to play in a televised match following the AFL grand final between Collingwood and West Coast.
"Obviously the AFL grand final is a big sporting event on the calendar and to be able to follow that up with a big game against New Zealand is something we've had marked in our diaries for a little while," she said.
"Hopefully we can put on a good show and there's plenty of people watching."
Meanwhile, Lanning revealed the men's and women's national teams had crossed paths recently as Cricket Australia strive to repair the code's image after the Cape Town ball tampering saga.
"We've had a couple of catch-ups in recent times about how we want to play going forward and making sure that we're playing the brand of cricket that we want," she said.
"I suppose it's 'hard but fair' and trying to carry that on, so I think we'll see both sides doing that from now on.
"I think our group does that really well, we're really competitive, but also very respectful of the game and our position."
