“It looks a good wicket, potentially a little bit tacky,” says Morgan. “Hopefully we’ll restrict Australia to a gettable total. It is a little bit softer than the Pakistan games. The two Currans and Tom Banton miss out. It’s great to have guys back. [Middle-over wickets] The addition of Mark Wood helps that, and Old Trafford normally takes a bit of turn so having Adil, Moeen and Joe are helpful. Australia is a fantastic side, and a difficult side to beat.”
“I’d have looked to bat anyway,” says Finch. “Steve Smith misses out he got a knock on the head yesterday in practice, so that’s a precautionary measure. Stoinis is going to bat at No. 3. Over the last couple of years we’ve played really good cricket in patches and really indifferent cricket in patches – we’re looking to be more consistent. We haven’t played our best cricket consistently, but we’re confident we can play some really good one-day cricket.”
This is the 150th ODI between these two teams – Australia have won 82, England 62, with 2 ties and 3 NRs.
Watch Eng v Aus 1st ODI Highlights today – 1st ODI (D/N), Australia tour of England from Old Trafford, Manchester Friday, 11-09-2020.
ICC Rankings Test, ODI & T20
England won the toss and elected to bowl first.
England team: 1 Jason Roy, 2 Jonny Bairstow, 3 Joe Root, 4 Eoin Morgan (captain), 5 Sam Billings, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood.
Australia team: 1 Aaron Finch (captain), 2 David Warner, 3 Marcus Stoinis, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Mitchell Marsh, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Adam Zampa.
Match Timings: 12:00 GMT | 13:00 Local
Umpires – Richard Kettleborough, David Millns
TV Umpires – Michael Gough
Match Referee – Chris Broad
Reserve Umpire – Mike Burns
Match number – ODI no. 4259