Depleted Aussies facing a huge task

England a hot favourite in ODI series

CRICKET: Australia begins a fresh era under new captain Tim Paine at The Oval tonight, confident its team of rookies can shock England in the fivematch one-day international series.

The hosts boast a woeful one-day record against Australia, winning just 52 of the 142 matches between the two nations.

However, England is the No.1 ranked 50-over team in the world and has been transformed under the captaincy of Eoin Morgan after their shambolic showing at the 2015 World Cup.

Despite their lofty status, England go into the game on the back of a shock six-run loss to Scotland in Edinburgh and will be without talismanic allrounder Ben Stokes and key bowler Chris Woakes.

But as the English showed by getting so close to Scotland’s mammoth total of 376, they boast great batting depth.

In the last series between the sides in Australia earlier this year, England won 4-1.

With the tourists missing the suspended Steve Smith and David Warner – in addition to Ashes-winning bowling spearheads Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Pat Cummins – the hosts are heavily fancied to win their home series.

Australia coach Justin Langer admits his team desperately needs more runs from their middle-order if they are to have any chance of success, and for Glenn Maxwell to rediscover his batting mojo.

Maxwell scored just one and three in his visits to the crease against Sussex and Middlesex last week and had a lean IPL campaign, averaging just over 14 for the Delhi Daredevils.

With Travis Head scoring a century as an opener against Middlesex and vice-captain Aaron Finch crunching a runa-ball 50 batting at five at Lord’s, Langer admits he is tempted to move Finch down the order.

However, Finch has an outstanding record against England against the new ball, averaging more than 55 in 20 matches and scoring five centuries.

Despite two relatively low scores from D’Arcy Short in the warm-up matches, he looks set to make his ODI debut, with Marcus Stoinis to keep his spot at No.3 after a classy century against Sussex.

It could mean Shaun Marsh misses out despite a solid 49 against Middlesex, as Langer is leaning towards playing four quick bowlers with Ashton Agar as the spinning option.

“We’ve used the opportunity to go with the extra bowler rather than the extra batsman, which we do traditionally,” Langer said.

“I’ve always seen having that extra bowling option work well in domestic cricket, particularly if your seven and eight can bat a bit and we’ve seen that with Ashton Agar and Michael Neser.”

Giant Queensland quick Billy Stanlake was preferred to Andrew Tye against Middlesex and his pace and bounce unsettled the batsmen throughout.

On the back of that performance, he looks set to make his third appearance for Australia.