Wellington joins spin-heavy attack for Pakistan clash

Amanda-Jade Wellington is making her first international appearance in almost three years after being called into Australia's XI for their World Cup match against Pakistan at Tauranga's Bay Oval.

Star allrounder Tahlia McGrath will miss the match with a sore heel, while teenage quick Darcie Brown is also sitting out, with Nicola Carey the other addition to the side.

Australia will bowl first after captain Meg Lanning won the toss.

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Australia XI: Alyssa Healy (wk), Rachael Haynes, Meg Lanning (c), Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney, Annabel Sutherland, Nicola Carey, Jessica Jonassen, Alana King, Amanda-Jade Wellington, Megan Schutt

Pakistan XI: Sidra Amin, Bismah Maroof (c), Nahida Khan, Omaima Sohail, Nida Dar, Aliya Riaz, Fatima Sana, Sidra Nawaz (wk), Diana Baig, Nashra Sandhu, Anam Amin

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McGrath batted at Monday's training session but did not bowl, while Australia had indicated Brown would be rotated in and out of the XI through the tournament to manage the 19-year-old's workloads.

Wellington, who has not played at international level since Australia's tour of India in March 2018, will form a three-strong spin attack alongside fellow leggie Alana King and left-armer Jess Jonassen.

Australia remain without spin-bowling allrounder Ashleigh Gardner, who is in isolation in Christchurch after testing positive to COVID-19 last week.

Pakistan have made one change to the side that suffered a 107-run loss to India at the same ground on Sunday, with Nahida Khan replacing Javeria Khan.

The Bay Oval pitch is being used for the third time in five days and Australia batter Beth Mooney said on Monday she expected the surface to favour the slower bowlers.

Australia played three ODIs against New Zealand at the Tauranga ground one year ago, with the one pitch used for those matches.

"When we got to the third game, it had slowed up quite a lot," Mooney said of that 2021 tour. "That intel will become really handy for us as a batting unit and bowling unit."

Australia have not played Pakistan in a one-dayer since October 2018 and their top six spent an extended period in the Bay Oval nets facing throwdowns on Monday, with coaches aiming to replicate the slower spin produced by Pakistan's Nida Dar, Anam Amin and Nashra Sandhu.

It was the slower bowlers who had the most success against Australia's strong batting line-up in Malaysia in 2018; while the chief destroyer Sana Mir has since retired and will instead occupy a seat in the commentary box on Tuesday, left-armers Amin and Sandhu took four wickets apiece in that three-game ODI series.

"Their spinners bowl quite differently to ours in terms of pace through the air," Mooney explained.

"They bowl a lot of seam-up arm balls as well … we've had a session today specifically on that as a top six and hopefully we can use that to our advantage tomorrow.

"So (we've been) working out exactly how we're going to set ourselves up when that happens.

"The beauty of our batting line-up is we're all quite different in where we hit the ball and access the areas.

"It was really nice just to do something a little bit different, and make it quite tailored to what we're going to come up against tomorrow."

ICC Women's Cricket World Cup 2022

Australia squad: Meg Lanning (c), Rachael Haynes (vc), Darcie Brown, Nicola Carey, Ashleigh Gardner, Grace Harris, Alyssa Healy, Jess Jonassen, Alana King, Beth Mooney, Tahlia McGrath, Ellyse Perry, Megan Schutt, Annabel Sutherland, Amanda-Jade Wellington. Travelling reserves: Heather Graham, Georgia Redmayne

Australia's World Cup 2022 fixtures

Mar 5: Australia def England by 12 runs

LIVE: v Pakistan, Bay Oval, Tauranga, 12pm AEDT

Mar 13: v New Zealand, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 15: v West Indies, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 19: v India, Eden Park, Auckland, 12pm AEDT

Mar 22: v South Africa, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 25: v Bangladesh, Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL WORLD CUP SCHEDULE

Semi-finals

Mar 30: Basin Reserve, Wellington, 8am AEDT

Mar 31: Hagley Park Christchurch, 12pm AEDT

Final

Apr 3: Hagley Park Christchurch, 11am AEDT

All matches to be broadcast in Australia on Fox Cricket and Kayo Sports