Mitchell Marsh-led Australia won the toss in the first ODI against England at the Perth Stadium in Perth on Friday and opted to field first. This is the start of England’s limited-overs tour of Australia, wherein they will play three ODIs and five T20Is.
Veteran batter Joe Root has made history by becoming the third Englishman to play 200 ODIs. Former captains Eoin Morgan (225 ODIs) and Jos Buttler (204) are the only other England men’s players to do so.
is leading in the absence of , who has been rested for the series on the back of a hectic tour of South Africa. Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have also been rested for the series.
For Australia, Mahli Beardman is making his ODI debut. Former batting stalwart Michael Hussey handed Beardman his maiden Australia ODI cap. “It’s going to be exciting for him. It’s probably no better place in the world for a young West Australian to debut. It’s a fantastic stadium, and I’m hopeful we’ll get a really good crowd today,” Marsh said at the toss.
captain Harry Brook said that his team was asked to bat first, but admitted that he would have opted to field first had he won the toss. Brook said that England are going with four pacers and an all-rounder in Liam Dawson.
“We’re not disappointed. We’d have had a bowl if we’d have won the toss, but look, you’ve got to do both aspects of the game at some point, so we’ll take it on,” Brook said.
“Yeah, we’ve had a great week and a half. We had the luxury of training over the WACA and having that practice game over there. So we’ve had a really good week’s training, and it’s something that we don’t really get much in the white ball, so it’s been nice to be together,” Brook added while referring to England’s warm-up match against Western Australia.
At the time of writing this report, England were 62/7 in 17.5 overs, with Jamie Overton and Will Jacks in the middle.
Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh(c), Cooper Connolly, Matt Renshaw, Josh Inglis(w), Cameron Green, Jack Edwards, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson, Mahli Beardman.
England: Ben Duckett, Tom Banton, Joe Root, Harry Brook(c), Jordan Cox(w), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer.
In India, the first ODI between Australia and England will be broadcast on the Eurosport TV channels. Live streaming of the match will be available on the Fancode app and website.
(With agency inputs)
