Last Updated on 6 years by Charbel Coorey
With the World Cup just a year away, the England v Australia ODI series has quite a bit of relevance. When you then add on what’s happened in 2018 from an Australian perspective, this series will be an interesting measure of Australia’s capabilities to fight back from some adversity. England, on the other hand, will be keen to prove they deserve the no.1 ranking as part of their preparation for next year’s World Cup at home.
It’s not the build up and intensity of the Ashes, but there is plenty to play for in this series.
Three days ago, England suffered a shock loss to Scotland – the first time ever that the no.1 ODI side lost to an Associate nation. It was an England-like result in a way, putting in disappointing performances at times in matches where they are overwhelming favourites. They will be favourites again here, though not to the extent v Scotland, and need a much improved performance against a team looking to prove a point.
Australia’s World Cup hopes have taken a huge hit, even over a year out from the tournament. David Warner and Steve Smith, two mainstays in the Aussie line up, won’t have a lot of time to prepare when they return. Also, they’ve been hit hard with injuries to key bowlers including Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Patrick Cummins. It is time for others to step up, and if they can be competitive in England, they’ll gain plenty of confidence.
Key to an England win
England were all over the place v Scotland, both with the ball, and then collapsing from a winning position to eventually lose the match.
England remain an excellent ODI side, but their preparation for the World Cup needs to be based on avoiding these lapses as much as possible. A complete performance is the order of the day, here.
What does a complete performance involve?
For starters, their bowlers leaked runs like no tomorrow against Scotland, and while the Associate nation should be so proud of their performance, England’s execution was simply nothing short of horrendous. Mark Wood was down on pace, went for over seven an over, and now averages over 46 in ODI cricket. David Willey, Adil Rashid and Liam Plunkett were also punished. England’s tough day was highlighted by the fact that Moeen Ali was their most economical, going for a still expensive 6.60 an over.
England can’t repeat this against Australia. If they can contain Australia’s new look line up, England have what it takes to score enough runs against an attack missing key personnel.
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| Jonny Bairstow is in great form |
Key to an Australia win
Who will be Australia’s Calum McLeod? What about Mark Watt? The onus is on the likes of D’Arcy Short, Travis Head and Shaun Marsh to get Australia off to a good start with the bat. Also, if selected, Glenn Maxwell must come out of his form slump to add vital impetus to the Aussie innings. If they don’t get enough runs on the board, you can kiss chances of victory just about goodbye.
Australia’s attack also possesses a bit of excitement, with quite a bit of pace. England conditions for ODI cricket over the last few years have been difficult for seamers, but if Australia can pick up regular wickets, they can restrict a strong England batting line up who will continue to go hard. A player to be especially weary of is Jonny Bairstow, after a superb 105 off 59 balls v Scotland on the weekend, his third consecutive ODI hundred.
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| How much will Australia miss Warner and Smith? |
Predicted teams:
Jos Buttler returns for England after being rested for the ODI against Scotland. He has been in scintillating form of late, dominating the latter part of IPL 2018 and scoring well in the Pakistan Tests. It will be interesting to see whether England make changes to the bowling attack that lined up against Scotland.
England XI: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Jason Roy, 3 Alex Hales, 4 Joe Root, 5 Eoin Morgan (c), 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Adil Rashid, 9 Liam Plunkett, 10 Tom Curran/David Willey, 11 Mark Wood
For Australia, there are various possibilities. The key will be to pick a side with the mindset of taking the game to England, rather than playing safe. I would pick Maxwell and back him to get out of his bad patch, but whether Australia go with that option, I’m not sure.
Australia XI: 1 D’arcy Short, 2 Travis Head, 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Shaun Marsh, 5 Aaron Finch, 6 Tim Paine (c & wk), 7 Ashton Agar, 8 Michael Neser, 9 Jhye Richardson/AJ Tye, 10 Kane Richardson, 11 Billy Stanlake
Stats and Facts:
- England beat Australia 4-1 in Australia earlier this year. David Warner and Steve Smith were playing.
- Australia have won just two of their last 13 completed ODIs.
- England losing to Scotland was the first time ever the no.1 ODI team lost to an Associate nation.
- If Jonny Bairstow scores a century today, he will join Kumar Sangakkara and Amy Satterthwaite as the only two cricketers to score four consecutive ODI hundreds. Also, skipper Eoin Morgan needs 110 runs to become England’s leading run scorer in ODIs, overtaking Ian Bell.
- England won six bilateral series in a row before losing to Scotland.
Prediction:
I believe England’s loss to Scotland was a big wake up call for them, and with Australia fielding quite a new look side, I expect England to take a 1-0 series lead.
However, how good would this series be if Australia took a surprise 1-0 lead? May the best team win!
