Australia ask England to bat, hand Beardman an ODI debut
Mahli Beardman shows off his ODI cap • Getty Images
Toss Australia chose to field vs England
Emerging quick Mahli Beardman won't have to wait long to be unleashed as he makes his ODI debut in the series-opener between Australia and England at Perth Stadium on Friday.
Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh elected to bowl when the coin fell in his favour, with a high-scoring match expected. As announced by Marsh on match eve, Beardman will be part of an inexperienced bowling attack without Test quicks Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, who are resting after the South Africa tour. Regular white-ball quick Nathan Ellis is also missing with a side strain.
Beardman's only previous international match was a T20I in Pakistan earlier in the year, while seam-bowling allrounder Jack Edwards will offer support to the frontline bowlers and will also bat at No. 7.
Australia's top six batters, which includes Cooper Connolly at No. 3, have been flagged by Marsh as their preferred line-up for next year's World Cup.
England have a near full-strength side as they look to quickly adapt to vastly different conditions to Pakistan, where they won just one of four games in a tri-series against Sri Lanka and the hosts recently.
Left-arm spinner Liam Dawson was again preferred over legspinner Adil Rashid, who was overlooked for most of the Pakistan tri-series but did take four wickets in England's 92-run warm-up win against Western Australia at the WACA.
The Perth Stadium surface is set to be fast and bouncy in traditional fashion, with an average of just 171.75 runs by teams batting first across the previous four ODIs at the ground.
Sunny and relatively warm conditions are forecast for the day fixture expected to attract around 25,000 fans.
Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 3 Cooper Connolly, 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Matt Renshaw, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Jack Edwards, 8 Xavier Bartlett, 9 Adam Zampa, 10 Spencer Johnson, 11 Mahli Beardman
England: England: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Tom Banton, 3 Joe Root, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Jordan Cox (wk), 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Jamie Overton,10 Gus Atkinson, 11 Jofra Archer
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