Quantcast

Aussies ponder extra batsman for Cardiff

Tourists may elect to bolster their batting as they seek to square the ODI series against England in Cardiff on Saturday

Australia's selection boss Trevor Hohns is poised to reassess the make-up of the side for Saturday's second ODI against England in Cardiff.

Tim Paine's team slipped to a three-wicket defeat at The Oval in the series-opener after another poor batting display that saw the tourists bundled out for just 214.

It was Australia's lowest all-out total against England when batting first after winning the toss and was never going to be enough to win the game.

Despite this, Eoin Morgan's side made hard work of the chase due to some fine bowling from an inexperienced attack.

The team selected for the Oval contained four frontline pacemen in debutant Michael Neser, Queensland tearaway Billy Stanlake, Andrew Tye and Kane Richardson.

All four performed admirably - Stanlake and Tye in particular - with the wily West Australian mixing up his deliveries to good effect to grab two wickets.

"I think he (Tye) had 22 (variations) at last count, but ... they all have a number of good slower balls and a number of good skills they can call on," Paine said.

"We are really happy with that attack we are putting together and when you look at Mitchell Starc and (Josh) Hazlewood and (Pat) Cummins, it's an exciting group of fast bowlers."

Match wrap: England spin to first ODI win

Despite doing well with the ball, the quartet added just 26 runs between them with the bat for the last four wickets.

With the top order failing to fire, Australia's batting line-up looked decidedly vulnerable with only Glenn Maxwell (62) and Ashton Agar (40) making meaningful contributions.

Paine moved himself up ahead of Maxwell to No.5 but was out on 12 playing a poorly executed reverse-sweep.

The skipper hinted that it may be a move the team sticks with in the Welsh capital if the top order fails to fire once again.

"We just wanted to hold Maxy back a bit," Paine said.

"We think he finishes the innings really well and when we lost those early wickets we decided to put me up and try and hold Maxy back then let him go out and play his natural game."

Should Hohns decide to bolster the batting, dashing opener D'Arcy Short or Alex Carey could come into the mix in Cardiff.

Richardson could be the man to miss out with Neser, who took two wickets at The Oval, being a stronger batsman.

Possible Australia XI: D'Arcy Short, Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Travis Head, Glenn Maxwell, Tim Paine, Ashton Agar, Michael Neser, Andrew Tye, Billy Stanlake.

Qantas tours of England and Zimbabwe

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

England ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes (injured), David Willey, Chris Woakes (injured), Mark Wood

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: Australia beat Sussex by 57 runs at Hove

June 9: Australia beat Middlesex by 101 runs at Lord's

June 13: England won by three wickets at The Oval

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

July 1: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan

July 2: Pakistan vs Australia

July 3: Australia vs Zimbabwe

July 4: Zimbabwe vs Pakistan

July 5: Pakistan vs Australia

July 6: Australia vs Zimbabwe

July 8: Final