All eyes will be on Steve Smith as the former Australia captain looks to lock down a place in the T20 World Cup squad with impressive performances on the New Zealand tour.

The Black Caps and Australia meet in Wellington in the first of three T20Is on Wednesday evening AEDT.

A bumper crowd is expected in the New Zealand capital with more than 20,000 tickets sold at the 33,000-capacity venue.

The series is the last chance for World Cup hopefuls to impress in an Australian shirt ahead of June's T20 World Cup in West Indies and USA.

Smith is in the gun after comments from current T20 captain Mitch Marsh suggested the top three of the batting order is effectively locked down, with Travis Head and David Warner as openers and himself at first drop.

"I think our top order's pretty set moving forward," Marsh said.

Smith, 34, has played in last three T20 World Cups, including the victorious 2021 campaign.

But his recent T20 form for Australia has been far from convincing with eight single-digit scores in the past 15 matches.

A 52 against India last November is his only half-century in the last 25 outings.

Conventional wisdom would suggest Smith cannot compete with the power-hitting middle-order options such as Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis and Josh Inglis, meaning he could find himself in a shootout with fellow top-order option Matt Short.

But batting orders are flexible and this series will see rotation used as selectors get a glimpse of what they want to see.

"I don't think everyone's going to play all three games throughout this series so certain guys will bat in certain places," Marsh said.

Nathan Ellis will get the chance to press his T20 World Cup claims after recovering from a rib injury, as will fellow quick Spencer Johnson, who was called up for the injured Stoinis.

New Zealand and Australia will face each other in Auckland in the final two matches of the T20 series.

AAP