NEW DELHI: An off-colour England and injury-hit Australia will be keen to get off to a strong start in the Champions Trophy campaign when the Ashes rivals face-off in Lahore on Saturday in what appears to be an evenly matched Group B match.
In the last two rubbers, world champion Australia has lost to Pakistan (1-2) and Sri Lanka (0-2) as both sides have struggled in the ODI format.
Since their catastrophic 2023 World Cup campaign, England, who are currently coached by Brendon McCullum in all forms, have failed to win an ODI series.
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The Jos Buttler-led team just suffered a 0-3 loss against India, as they looked unprepared and were unable to compete with the home team.
Both teams will be eager to make their mark in this ICC showpiece event.
Australia won a five-match series 3-2 in September of last year, giving them the advantage over their Ashes opponents the previous time they played in England.
But a lot has changed since then, as the world champions now without five important members of their original roster.
Their renowned trio of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc will not be playing in the event, which will have a significant impact on their pace assault.
Additionally, they will be without all-rounders Marcus Stoinis, who made an unexpected retirement from the format after being included in the tournament’s original lineup, Mitchell Marsh (back injury), and Cameron Green (injury).
In this situation, it is unclear if Australia, led by interim captain Steve Smith, would be able to repeat their previous achievements in what is sometimes called a ‘mini’ World Cup.
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Smith will probably start at No. 3 in Marsh’s absence and shoulder the batting load for a team that won this event back-to-back in 2006 and 2009.
Travis Head, the aggressive white-ball opener, will be the center of attention. In their 2022 series, he scored 101 and 89 runs at this very venue.
Head is a serious threat after smashing a career-best 154 not out against England at Trent Bridge during the previous year’s series.
England has suggested a three-pronged pace attack with Adil Rashid’s spin to complement Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, and Brydon Carse as a potential counter-strategy.
“They’re pretty much all-out fast bowling with Adil (Rashid, the leg-spinner) being their banker – he’s high quality, and doesn’t go underrated in this room – but there’s so much excitement around Wood, Jofra, Carse and (Gus) Atkinson,” head told ‘cricket.com.au’.
“We’re going to have to make sure we start well against them. As an opening batter, how I can counteract that and how I play against that is a great challenge.”
Jamie Smith, a rising wicketkeeper-batter for England, is also included. He is probably going to bat at number three.
Ben Duckett, who looked in explosive form against India, will try to provide a solid start, while Joe Root will be the batting backbone, as the wicket is predicted to favor batting.
Root, who finished the India series as England’s second-leading run scorer after Duckett, will try to have a big influence.
England, who are vying for their first Champions Trophy, are avoiding thinking about their previous setbacks in India.
“Regardless of what happened in India, we’ve got that belief that we’ve got the talent, we’ve got the world-class players, the match-winners in the squad to win the tournament,” Rashid said.
Teams (from):
Australia: Steve Smith (Capt.), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: Cooper Connolly
England XI: Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (Capt.), Liam Livingstone, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood