Gillette ODI Series Preview

With less than a day to go prior to the first ball of the Gillette ODI series against England, there is no doubt that the teams are fairly even. With a 4-0 victory under Australia's belt in the recent Magellan Ashes series, I am sure that Australia will fancy their chances of sweeping the tourists again. 

But unlike England's test squad, their ODI team is a much stronger looking unit and definitely has had a lot more success than Australia in recent times in the short format. I hope that more than anything that this series will bring out a lot more flare than the test series and there will be a more even contest between the two sides. 

Looking at the squads that have been selected, I think that both teams have a great balance and to be honest, they are fairly balanced on paper. But with Australia playing on home conditions, there is no doubt that they start off the series as firm favourites. However, in saying that, I believe that with a different captain and different mindset in the team, I am sure that England has the capacity to cause an upset somewhere in the series. 

As we have seen throughout the series, momentum shifted immensely from session to session. Specifically, England was able to at times, have the game in their favour for decent periods of times which will favour the ODI format.  

Probably the main story leading up to this series is Australia's selection of Camron White for an injured Chris Lynn and the exclusion of Glen Maxwell from the squad. Whilst I believe that Chris Lynn certainly was a great addition to the team, but his inclusion when he was clearly not fit was a bit premature and risky. But I was honestly a bit surprised by the inclusion of Camron White into the squad as it is the first time in a while that an older player has had the opportunity to make a comeback into the team. It is fair to say that he has been in good form in the shorter format, but I still think that there were other players who were slightly unlucky to miss out. The clear player to miss out was Glen Maxwell who has had plenty of media attention. Whilst I am personally not a fan of Maxwell, I do believe that he is an x-factor in the team. The other player that I believe would have had a good chance of selection over White may have been Usman Khawaja considering his test form of recent and his excellent return to the Big Bash League. 

England I feel do not have as many selection dilemmas with the exception of whether Ben Stokes will play. On that note, I do hope that England simply gets over him and that the mindset that they had over his absence in the test series did not help their cause and drifted them from the game at hand. The only issue I see on England's side is their lack of pace in comparison to the Australian team. Whilst Mark Wood has the pace to shake the Aussies, I think that there is overall a big difference in speeds between the two teams. 

Overall, I believe that this series will be a lot more exciting and closer than the test series. I do believe that England has a really good chance of causing some upsets and am sure that they will certainly cause a lot more trouble than they did in the test series. I do however predict that Australia will win the series overall, but England will have a couple of wins. Hence, I view this series ending in a 3-2 victory in Australia's favour, with the first match set to start at the MCG. 

MY AUSTRALIA XI FOR 1ST ODI: Aaron Finch, David Warner, Steve Smith (c), Travis Head, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Marsh, Tim Paine (wk), Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, Josh Hazelwood, Adam Zampa, Camron White (12th man)

MY ENGLAND XI FOR 1ST ODI: Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Johnny Bairstow, Eoin Morgan (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, Tom Curran, Mark Wood, Liam Plunkett, Jason Roy (12th man)