England vs Australia, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 warm-up: Preview, predictions

The defending champions take on the favourites – it might just be a warm-up before the real thing a bit later, but it will offer each team another opportunity to fine-tune their squads. That said, how much of that opportunity they will make use of remains to be seen, given both Eoin Morgan and Aaron Finch expressed their wish that tournament was “starting tomorrow”.

Be that as it may, England will have another opportunity to further integrate Jofra Archer into their team. Archer was fast-tracked into the squad, having not played an ODI till a few weeks back, and as impressive as he has been in the few times he’s turned out for England, the team will want him to have even more opportunities to settle down and feel comfortable. He is a key player – an “X factor”, Virat Kohli called him – and England will want him in mint condition.

Similarly, Australia have a chance to reintegrate David Warner and Steve Smith. The defending champions were impressive in their 5-0 sweep of Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates in March, but the duo were still banned at the time. How will their returns affect the side? It’s all well and good so far – as evidenced in a few practice matches against New Zealand Xi – but how their returns affect their team combination remains to be seen.

All in all, plenty of things to look forward to, even if it is a warm-up.

Head to head

Over the years, England and Australia have played 68 ODIs in England. The home side have won 34 of those matches to Australia’s 30 – there has been two ties too. It’s too tight to call when these old rivals clash.

Key players

Jofra Archer (England): The paceman has earned his place in the World Cup squad. But the pressure will be even more intense here on. Archer has put in impressive performances so far, and doesn’t seem the sort to let pressure get to him. That said, he’ll need to keep churning out good performances to continuing bossing pressure. The warm-ups will be important for him.

David Warner (Australia): The opener was in sublime during the Indian Premier League, and he gave the impression he was hungry to play more matches. That’s ominous for England, and every other team at the World Cup. Plenty of teams will be watching him.

Squads

England: Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (vc & wk), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Tom Curran, Jofra Archer, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc & wk), Pat Cummins (vc), Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, Steven Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa.

Prediction

England to sneak past Australia and continue on their winning streak.