UK tour to provide World Cup clues

While the immediate ambition of Australia's upcoming ODI campaign in England is to start rebuilding after the ball-tampering fall-out, the longer term necessity is to formulate strategies ahead of next year's World Cup that will also be staged in the UK.

The members of the 15-man ODI squad not already engaged in offshore competitions will convene in Brisbane at week's end before embarking on the Qantas Tour of England that includes five one-day fixtures and a T20 International, starting on June 13.

That's less than a year prior to Australia's scheduled ICC World Cup opener against Afghanistan at Bristol on June 2, 2019, and the ODI squad's reserve keeper (and top-order batter) Alex Carey recognises the importance of the coming tour as a pointer to the subsequent showpiece tournament.

Given that England are currently the world's top-ranked ODI outfit having dealt Australia a 4-1 hiding in last summer's Gillette One-Day Series, and will enter next year's World Cup (a trophy they have never won) with home-ground advantage, Carey sees some crucial learnings available in coming weeks.

"There's a big focus on this (UK) tour to get a squad together that hopefully might still be together in 12 months' time for the World Cup," Carey said today ahead of his first overseas sojourn with the men's ODI squad.

"And hopefully, getting that experience under our belt.

"We’ve won three out of the last four World Cups and we definitely want to win the next one, so it's a big opportunity for our group to go over there and play cricket a year out in their conditions with hopefully a squad that will be together."

While Australia's two best-performed one-day batters of recent years, ex-captain Steve Smith and his former deputy David Warner, will be available for World Cup selection having served their respective year-long suspensions, Australia must build the nucleus of an ODI squad without them.

Among the key intelligence that newly installed men's team coach Justin Langer and his players will be keen to glean is how pitches play and the white ball behaves at the start of the British summer, with the World Cup scheduled to run from May 30-July 14.

The previous quadrennial tournament staged in the UK, which Australia won in 1999, began in mid-May and was dominated by the ball amid cool, often damp conditions in which only three 300-plus totals were registered for the entire campaign.

However, Carey has been keeping an eye on scores from England's domestic one-day cup competition that kicked off last week and noted that scoring has not been an issue, with average team totals to date of around 260.

With Langer's former county home Somerset setting the benchmark by clubbing 7-372 from their 50 overs against Glamorgan (featuring a couple of Langer’s WA charges, Shaun Marsh and Michael Hogan) at Taunton last Sunday.

Carey is looking forward to catching up with his South Australia and Adelaide Strikers captain Travis Head (currently playing for Worcestershire) when the full Australia squad convenes in London next week, to gain further insights of what to expect from England’s venues and opposition.

"I haven't spoken to (Head) yet but I had a look at some results last night and there were some big scores made, so it looks like the conditions are pretty good," Carey said.

"And they (England) came out here last summer and beat us in white-ball cricket so we want to get back over there and make amends for that."

The 26-year-old, who earlier this month was named vice-captain of Australia's T20 outfit that will travel to Zimbabwe for a week-long tri-series against the host nation and Pakistan immediately after the England tour, has also committed to a further two years with the Strikers in the KFC Big Bash League.

As opener and gloveman for the Strikers, Carey was a significant factor in their first BBL title win last summer and has indicated that he hopes to play out the remainder of his career with the Adelaide franchise having signed on until at least the close of BBL|09.

"There was no other offers that I considered, I’m more than happy and want to play all my cricket in South Australia," he said.

"I think last year, we didn’t talk about winning the competition, we just got the squad together and (coach) Jason Gillespie was a key part in making it a really relaxed fun environment.

"Coming together within a week and playing games of cricket, you need to be a pretty tight squad and we were definitely that.

"We can go back-to-back with the squad we’ve got, it’s obviously a long way away but I’m really excited to get back out there, now that we’ve got some more experience under our belt."

Qantas tours of England and Zimbabwe

ODI squad: Tim Paine (c), Aaron Finch (vc), Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Shaun Marsh, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Andrew Tye

T20 squad: Aaron Finch (c), Alex Carey (vc), Ashton Agar, Travis Head, Nic Maddinson, Glenn Maxwell, Jhye Richardson, Kane Richardson, D’Arcy Short, Billy Stanlake, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jack Wildermuth

Qantas Tour of England

June 7: Warm-up v Sussex, Hove (D/N)

June 9: Warm-up v Middlesex, Lord's

June 13: First ODI, The Oval (D/N)

June 16: Second ODI, Cardiff

June 19: Third ODI, Trent Bridge (D/N)

June 21: Fourth ODI, Durham (D/N)

June 24: Fifth ODI, Old Trafford

June 27: Only T20, Edgbaston (D/N)

Qantas T20I tri-series Tour of Zimbabwe

Sunday, July 1: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan

Monday, July 2: Pakistan vs Australia

Tuesday, July 3: Australia vs Zimbabwe

Wednesday, July 4: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan

Thursday, July 5: Pakistan vs Australia

Friday, July 6: Australia vs Zimbabwe

Sunday, July 8: Final