Oz were rubbish this year – Smith
With Dawid Malan just doing enough to keep his place after averaging 23.62 in his five matches batting at five, Ballance and Vince could both travel, with Keaton Jennings, Lancashire’s Haseeb Hameed, who broke his finger this month, and oneday specialist Alex Hales likely to miss out.
All three could feature for England’s second-string Lions squad, who will be in Australia this winter and supply ready-made replacements in the event of injury.
England’s middle-order is settled, with Stokes, keeper Jonny Bairstow and Moeen regularly taking turns to bat England out of trouble against South Africa and West Indies.
Stuart Broad and James Anderson, who recently took his 500th Test wicket, will again spearhead the attack although neither is naturally suited to the extra pace and bounce of Australian pitches.
That could open the way for Mark Wood if he can stay fit, with Liam Plunkett, Craig Overton and Jake Ball all meriting discussion for a place alongside Chris Woakes.
Toby Roland-Jones, a surprising success this summer, will almost certainly miss out after injuring his back while his Middlesex teammate Steve Finn is an outsider, particularly after his struggles in Australia on England’s last tour in 2013.
Leg-spinner Mason Crane numbers great Australian cricketer Shane Warne among his many admirers and, having gained experience of Australian conditions with New South Wales this year, looks likely to claim the second spinner spot behind Moeen.
Surrey’s Ben Foakes is the favourite to travel as back-up keeper to Bairstow, setting up the possibility of England picking Stokes, Woakes and Foakes in the same team. — Reuters STEVE Smith has said his side’s record in 2017 is unacceptable for an Australian cricket team in the wake of the one-day international series loss to India.
Australia’s five-wicket defeat in Indore saw them fall 3-0 behind in the five-match series, and was their 11th loss in their past 13 ODIs away from home. The other two matches were rain-affected no results.
With the Ashes looming in two months, the Australia skipper said his team needed to get back to winning ways fast.
“It’s a different format (to the Ashes) but I’d certainly like to start winning some games of cricket in every format to be honest,” Smith told reporters.
“It’s pretty ordinary. Not good enough for an Australian cricket team and we need to start turning the results around and winning some games.
“It’s been a bit of a trend for this format and the Test format as well.
“We’re quite often getting ourselves into good positions and we’re not taking advantage of those and today was no different.”
Australia has won just three out of 17 matches across all three formats since the ODI series victory at home against Pakistan in January.
Smith’s men will be keen to break their win drought, mindful that an ODI series whitewash away to South Africa last year preceded the 2-1 Test series defeat against the same opponents on home soil.
“It’s always hard to take when you lose,” said Smith. “(As captain) you’ve got to continue to try and motivate them and get them up for their next two games.
“We continually address it and it’s just hard to put the finger on exactly what it is we’re doing or not doing to get the results we’re after.”
The fourth ODI is in Bengaluru on Thursday. — REUTERS