Illness swept through the Australian ODI squad ahead of Thursday night’s opening match in England with two fast bowlers struck down, but 19-year-old bolter Mahli Beardman remains unlikely to make a shock international debut. Follow the first ODI live from 9:30pm AEST below!
Captain Mitchell Marsh conceded the tourists were “working through some things” at his pre-match press conference, with cricket.com.au reporting that Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are among the players struck down by the same illness that kept the skipper out of the second T20 last week.
Glenn Maxwell is also under the weather and the trio are in some doubt of lining up in the opening match at Trent Bridge, which could leave the bowling stocks severely depleted.
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Frontliners Sean Abbott and late-call up Ben Dwarshius and potentially all-rounders Aaron Hardie and Cameron Green will carry the bowling loads with spinner Adam Zampa in his 100th ODI.
Beardman remains on standby but only arrived in the UK on Tuesday from Perth and didn’t bowl at training 24 hours out from the opening game.
Marsh conceded there would have to be a lot of management of the fast bowlers during the series and even before the opening game and could only say “virtually everyone” in the squad was fit and available to play.
“We’re working through some things, but we’ll put 11 on the park,” he said.
“It’s certainly a busy schedule and there are times when we might have to manage guys through and playing five games in 10 days is certainly a big ask but we’ll manage that the best we can and make sure we are fielding teams to win this series.”
Marsh said Beardman would “learn a lot” after his call-up but was reluctant to suggest he’d play despite the extra management now needed to deal with the ill payers.
“He’s a ripping young kid. He’s obviously on standby at this point in time,” he said.
“But for a 19-year-old kid, he’s certainly got a lot of talent. He showed that throughout the Under 19 World Cup and I think he’s gonna learn a lot by being here over the next couple of weeks.
“Obviously, I haven’t been home a lot, but I’ve certainly faced him in the nets a few times and I mean we’ve seen over the history of Australian cricket we’ve got a long a long list of guys that have been plucked I guess out of nowhere, but Mali certainly is extremely talented, he bowls fast and we’re wrapped to have him here.”
England has also brought in several new players for the series, with regular captain Jos Buttler out injured and Harry Brook to lead the team as Australia seeks to defy the odds and win a 13th consecutive ODI.
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