England vs Australia: 5 players to look forward to in the ODI series
Australian cricket has hit rock bottom off late with the ball-tampering scandal that shook the world of cricket.
The involvement of senior players like Steven Smith, David Warner damaged their reputations as they were handed lengthy bans.
Australia will be looking to move on from those events. They will be without their best players, Steven Smith and David Warner for at least one year. Tim Paine has been appointed the new skipper, in place of Steven Smith.
Their former head coach Darren Lehmann, stepped down after the ball-tampering fiasco. He has been replaced by Justin Langer and will be assisted by Ricky Ponting for the tour to England.
And in a recent development, Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland stepped down from his position.
Australia will look to put the events of recent times behind them and start afresh. A complete upheaval in their leadership is what this team requires to regain lost reputation and respect.
They are scheduled to play a five-match ODI series followed by a one-off T20I against England in England. This would give them ideal opportunity to prepare for the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup.
With almost all their big names out either due to injury, the side touring England have many fresh faces, who would use this series an opportunity to cement their place in the squad for the ICC World Cup.
With a new coach, new captain and a relatively new looking team, how well will Australia compete against the hosts England? Here’s looking at 5 players to look forward in the upcoming ODI series starting June 13, 2018.
#1 Joe Root
England’s prolific batsman Joe Root would look at this series to dominate the opposition. In what is mini ashes series, Root would want to convert starts into big scores against a relatively inexperienced and untested Australian bowling line up.
One major issue with Root is his conversion rate. He gets off to good starts and doesn’t convert it to hundreds as often he or his team would like. That’s one area where he lags in comparison to his competitors such as Virat Kohli, Kane Williamson and Steven Smith.
Looking at the Australian bowling which would feature in the upcoming five-match ODI series, Root would want to bat and score big. It’s a very good opportunity for him to strengthen his position as England’s frontline batsman.
With Eoin Morgan leading the side, Root wouldn’t have the extra burden of captaining the side.
A batsman with 4451 runs in 107 ODI’s with an outstanding average of 51.16, Root would have the added responsibility of binding the batting order together, with the likes of Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes missing from the team due to injury.