England win the toss and bat first in opening ODI against Australia

England won the toss and chose to bat first vs Australia

Harry Brook won his first toss as England captain and chose to bat first in the first ODI at the Kia Oval, against an Australia team that has been struck down with a sickness bug over the past few days.

“We have 11!” as Mitchell Marsh, Australia’s captain, put it at the toss, among them the New South Wales and Sydney Sixers left-arm seamer Ben Dwarshuis, who will be making his international debut at the age of 30.

Adam Zampa will be playing his 100th ODI, and will be an even more integral member of Australia’s attack in this contest, in the absence of their big three seamers – Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood.

England’s focus is very much on renewal after their disastrous World Cup defence in India last year. Brook steps in as Jos Buttler’s stand-in, while he continues to recover from a long-term calf injury, while there’s a second debut in the space of a week for Jacob Bethell, who adds a first ODI cap to his T20I bow against the same opponents in Southampton.

Jofra Archer will be back to lead the line in the format, in his first ODI appearance in 18 months, but there will be no Reece Topley, who reportedly fell ill overnight and is replaced by Matthew Potts.

Brook’s stated approach at the toss will be typically non-nonsense in his maiden stint as captain. “Put a little pressure on them in the first innings and try to get a big score,” he said. “Have a lot of fun and look to take wickets.”

England: 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Phil Salt, 3 Will Jacks, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Jamie Smith (wk), 6 Liam Livingstone, 7 Jacob Bethell, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Matthew Potts, 11 Adil Rashid.

Australia: 1 Travis Head, 2 Mitchell Marsh (capt), 3 Steven Smith, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Alex Carey (wk), 7 Matthew Short, 8 Aaron Hardie, 9 Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis, 11 Adam Zampa

Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket