England bowl first as new white-ball era begins

Toss England won the toss and chose to bowl first vs Australia

Matthew Short has returned from paternity leave and will open the batting in Australia’s first of three T20Is against England at the Utilita Bowl near Southampton. Australia opted to leave out Jake Fraser-McGurk — who managed 0, 16 and 0 during their 3-0 clean sweep in Scotland — with Short due to open alongside Travis Head instead.

Short was not initially due to land in England until the ODI leg of the tour, which starts next Thursday. But the early arrival of his and his partner’s first child enabled him to travel over ahead of schedule, with an opportunity to lock down the opening spot vacated by David Warner’s retirement following June’s T20 World Cup.

Josh Hazlewood also returned to the side, as flagged by Mitchell Marsh on Tuesday, with Cooper Connolly dropping out following his debut in Edinburgh. Xavier Bartlett will share the new ball, replacing allrounder Aaron Hardie.

England announced their team more than 24 hours before the toss, with international debuts for Jacob Bethell and Jordan Cox, and a maiden T20I cap for Jamie Overton, who is playing as a specialist batter as he continues his rehabilitation from a back stress fracture.

Phil Salt will captain England for the first time and keep wicket, with Jos Buttler missing through a calf injury. Buttler is with the squad and is targeting a return during the five-match ODI series. “As a kid growing up it would have been a dream to think I’d one day be asked to captain my country and I couldn’t be more proud to get this opportunity,” Salt wrote in his programme notes.

Salt chose to send Australia in, suggesting that chasing teams generally enjoy more success at the Utilita Bowl and citing the fact that the pitch had spent an hour under cover, due to a heavy rain shower which delayed the toss and start by 15 minutes.

Before the toss, two teenagers involved in Hampshire’s academy switched on 1,044 newly-installed solar panels, which have been installed as part of the club’s tie-in with energy company Utilita, the venue’s new title sponsor. David Mann, Hampshire’s chief executive, said the initiative underlined their commitment to being “the greenest international cricket venue”.

England: 1 Phil Salt (capt/wk), 2 Will Jacks, 3 Jordan Cox, 4 Liam Livingstone, 5 Jacob Bethell, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Jamie Overton, 8 Jofra Archer, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Saqib Mahmood, 11 Reece Topley

Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 Matt Short, 3 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Tim David, 8 Sean Abbott, 9 Xavier Bartlett, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98