There was a time when the tri-series played in Australia was the most important yearly event on cricket’s ODI calendar. That’s no longer the case anymore, with the emergence of Twenty20 cricket. Indeed, even Australia had given up on the format, last organizing a tri-series in 2011-12.
But with the 2015 cricket World Cup only a few weeks away, a tri-series contest between the three top sides in the world – India, Australia and England – serves as a terrific preparation for what it to follow soon. England have been terrible in all ODI competitions and it’s hard to remember the last time they did.
England’s poor performances may be attributed to confusion at the very top, which first led to the sacking of Kevin Pieterson, followed by persisting with Alastair Cook when clearly he was not up to the task of playing one day cricket at the international level, and realizing the mistake at pretty much the last moment, leading to Cook being dropped from the team.
Finally, a decision was taken to make Eoin Morgan the new captain, and guess what’s the question Morgan gets asked most in Australia? You guessed it – where’s Kevin Pietersen? Morgan has a stock reply for every question related to KP:
“I’m very happy with the group of players I have, I think this is the best group of players we have to drive the England team forward over the next two months in particular. Kevin’s situation hasn’t changed over the last year. It’s been reiterated over months and days. It was reiterated before Christmas by the chairman of selectors and I’m reiterating it again just to clear it up.”
Clearly, there’s no way back for Kevin Pietersen. Morgan could do with runs though, he has scored only a single fifty in the last 19 innings. The best players in the English line-up based on current form are clearly Ian Bell and Moeen Ali. Bell made a terrific 187 in the last practice match, while Moeen has been consistently good, and was brilliant in the series against Sri Lanka.
Australia will be without Michael Clarke, of course, and his place as the captain of the side will be taken by the very capable George Bailey. George Bailey spoke about Michael Clarke’s absence: “It’s something we’re used to as a team, having to deal with not having a player like Michael in the side, and I think we’ve responded pretty well when that has been the case. I think our record speaks for itself.”
Australia will have a decision to make on whether to bank on Glenn Maxwell as the lone spinner or to have Xavier Doherty in the side as a specialist left arm spinner. The rest of the Australian team picks itself, and there is a chance that the Indian origin player, Gurinder Sandhu could be given a chance as well.
Team news
Australia: 1 David Warner, 2 Aaron Finch, 3 Shane Watson, 4 Steven Smith, 5 George Bailey (capt), 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 James Faulkner, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Pat Cummins, 11 Gurinder Sandhu/Xavier Doherty.
England: 1 Ian Bell, 2 Moeen Ali, 3 James Taylor, 4 Joe Root, 5 Eoin Morgan (capt), 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Ravi Bopara, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 James Tredwell, 11 James Anderson/Chris Jordan/Steven Finn.
Watch the match live on Star Sports at 8:30 am on Friday, 16th January.
