Aussies keep ace pair up sleeve in warm-up

Australia have kept ace World Cup pacemen Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins up their sleeve for their warm-up clash against England at Southampton, electing not to give the tournament favourites an early sight of the star duo.

Ahead of a big few months of the back-to-back World Cup and Ashes tours, Starc and Cummins have been held back from the practice match against the tournament favourites and hosts.

The pair are expected to shoulder heavy workloads through both one-day and Test campaigns.

Glenn Maxwell is also sitting out the match as Marcus Stoinis, Kane Richardson and Nathan Lyon all return for the Aussies.

England are bowling first after stand-in skipper Jos Buttler won the toss in Southampton.

Usman Khawaja, who was struck in the jaw by a bouncer in a warm-up game against West Indies on Wednesday but suffered no lasting damage, is fit to play the warm-up fixture.

Buttler will captain England after Eoin Morgan suffered a flake fracture to his finger at training on Friday. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid is also sitting out the match with a shoulder injury, while Joe Root is also absent following the death of his grandfather two days ago.

As far as practice matches go, this one is about as intriguing as they come.

The bitter rivals are set to see a lot of one another in the coming months; they'll be playing for keeps when they meet again in a mouth-watering clash at Lord's on June 25, while the hotly anticipated five-Test Ashes series gets underway in August at Edgbaston.

"I think there's always something (extra) when England play Australia," fielding coach Brad Haddin said on Friday.

"It is obviously a warm-up game leading into the world cup but you're starting to get really close to that first game now.

"It’s really important we get into some really good habits and there's no better way to get that competition edge than a practice game versus England.

"We can talk a lot about it being a practice game, getting miles in the legs, but once you walk over the line, pride takes over and you want to do well against England."

A crowd of up to 10,000 spectators is expected for the match at what is traditionally a fruitful venue for batsmen.

"We'll be doing everything in our power to win the game," assistant coach and former skipper Ricky Ponting said. "We want to win and we want to continue building on the things we've building on for the last few months."

Australia play another warm-up match against Sri Lanka on Monday, before moving to Bristol where their tournament proper kicks off against Afghanistan on June 1.

Australia XII: Aaron Finch (c), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Kane Richardson, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa

England XI: Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, James Vince, Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (c)(wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Liam Dawson, Tom Curran, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood

2019 World Cup

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

May 22: (warm-up) Australia beat West Indies by seven wickets

May 25: (warm-up) England v Australia, Southampton

May 27: (warm-up) Australia v Sri Lanka, Southampton

June 1: Afghanistan v Australia, Bristol (D/N)

June 6: Australia v West Indies, Trent Bridge

June 9: India v Australia, The Oval

June 12: Australia v Pakistan, Taunton

June 15: Sri Lanka v Australia, The Oval

June 20: Australia v Bangladesh, Trent Bridge

June 25: England v Australia, Lord's

June 29: New Zealand v Australia, Lord's (D/N)

July 6: Australia v South Africa, Old Trafford (D/N)

July 9: Semi-Final 1, Old Trafford

July 11: Semi-Final 2, Edgbaston

July 14: Final, Lord's

For a full list of all World Cup fixtures, click HERE