Pat Cummins will resist the temptation to take the new ball in his ODI captaincy debut against England tomorrow, and instead seems set to reunite Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood at the top of Australia's limited-overs bowling attack.
While Australia won't settle on their starting line-up for the first game of the three-match Dettol ODI Series until tomorrow's coin toss at Adelaide Oval, Cummins today confirmed Starc will return to his traditional strike bowler role and most likely share the new ball with Hazlewood.
It was Australia's previous outing at Adelaide Oval – the T20 World Cup match against Afghanistan less than two weeks ago – that saw Starc omitted from the starting XI in what proved to be the defending champions' final game of the tournament.
Under the leadership of former ODI captain Aaron Finch, whose retirement from the 50-over format earlier this year led to Cummins' appointment, the Australia Test skipper was regularly deployed as first-change or sometimes second-change option with the white ball.
Now that he's able to call the shots, Cummins joked he would bowl himself from whatever end of Adelaide Oval offered protection to a long boundary for "all ten overs, whenever I want, which is great" before conceding Starc would resume as attack leader.
"Mitchell Starc will definitely take the new ball, and probably Joshy as well," Cummins told reporters at Adelaide Oval ahead of tomorrow's game against the reigning ODI and T20I world champions.
"He's all good, Starcy. He's great around the side as he always is, really positive
"Hopefully he knows his value to us as he's been fantastic, especially in one-day cricket.
"The last two (50-over) World Cups, he's been close to player of the tournament in both of them, so he's a huge player for us.
"And we've got 15 Test matches which I'm sure he'll be involved in just about every single one of them."
Cummins begins his captaincy tenure still fielding questions about Australia's T20 World Cup campaign, in which they failed to reach the play-off games despite only suffering a solitary loss, to New Zealand in the opening round.
But with England going on to win the tournament, following their breakthrough success in the ODI format in the 2019 50-over World Cup staged in the UK, critics took aim at the host nation's decision to leave out Starc from their final Super 12s fixture.
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Cummins said the change in decision to reinstate Starc had as much to do with the different tactics involved in 20-over cricket as it was recognition of the left-armer's stunning record as a new-ball and 'death' bowler in the 50-over game.
"I think in T20, you get really specific around match-ups and bowling distribution," Cummins said today.
"Here it's a bit more of a gut feel and hopefully he (Starc) can take the new ball, swing it around, and he has a few more overs to play with as well.
"I think some of the commentary (around Australia's T20 World Cup campaign) has probably been a bit dramatised.
"If you look back, we did just lose one game.
"We might not have played our best cricket, but if a few different things had fallen our way we still might have been in the finals, and anything happens from there.
"I think we're stung a little bit knowing we didn't play our best, especially that first game against New Zealand and made it tough for ourselves.
"But I feel like we're a good side in any format, and hopefully we can show it out here."
Under normal circumstances, a rampant England ODI team would provide a serious challenge for any opponent, regardless of the prevailing conditions.
But with the start of the series coming just four days after England crowned their T20 World Cup triumph against Pakistan at the MCG and with those celebrations effectively continuing through until yesterday, they enter tomorrow's match slightly underdone if not underdogs.
Captain Jos Buttler admitted as much today, noting England will take the opportunity to play "as many as we can" of the players who have come fresh into the ODI squad having not been part of the World Cup success.
"It's going to be a challenge, there's no point … trying to say all the right things, that we'll be at our best," Buttler told reporters prior to his team's final pre-game training session.
"We celebrated well. Wins like that don't come along often in your careers.
"We've had a lot of fun over the last few days and really taken it all in.
"But there's a few guys that are coming in fresh, and a few guys that haven't had much game time in the World Cup who are desperate to make their mark so I'm sure once we get over the line playing against Australia, we'll be fully fired up.
"We'll have to switch on pretty fast."
Despite offering a polite "no" when asked if England had settled on a starting line-up for tomorrow's day-night fixture, Buttler confirmed he would be right to go and was not in need of a rest during the three-game series.
Cummins acknowledged England had won the right to indulge in some celebrating given the success of their World Cup campaign, and was wary about claiming any sort of pre-match advantage owing to his opponents' unusual lead-in.
"They might be a little bit short of sleep, but they're a class side," he said.
"A few of their squad members for the ODIs weren't part of the T20s, so I'm sure that will create a bit of impact.
"But they're riding high so they'll be strong no doubt, even if a bit tired."
Buttler and the celebrating members of England's T20I outfit are not the only players coming into tomorrow's series opener on the back of less-than-optimal preparation.
Cummins only joined his teammates in Adelaide yesterday afternoon, having been laid low by a gastro-type "bug" that saw him spend a couple of days bed-bound in Sydney at the start of the week.
But the new ODI skipper begins his captaincy tenure at full fitness, and adds that despite the disappointment of having missed the finals of a home World Cup his players have benefitted from a few days rest and refreshment at home before assembling in Adelaide this week.
It also marks the resumption of the men's international summer of bilateral matches, which also includes home NRMA Insurance Tests against West Indies and South Africa before Cummins leads his Test team on tours to India and England plus the possibility of a World Test Championship final.
It's that daunting program, which he claimed added up to "around 100 days of cricket for Australia in the next 12 months" that convinced him to forego his lucrative deal with Kolkata Knight Riders in the Indian Premier League next year.
"I really do love playing in the IPL, and the team there at Kolkata, I've been with them for four or five years," he said.
"But I think looking at the schedule, the decision was pretty easy. There's so much Aussie cricket on.
"If we make the World Test Championship final, that's 15 Test matches in the next six or seven months then throw in the one-day World Cup (in India in 12 months' time).
"You not only want to be physically fresh but, being captain, you want to be as mentally fresh as you can be to make better decisions when you need to.
"Straight after the IPL there's six Test matches in England, hopefully we make the (Test Championship) final.
"I know I was totally depleted after the last 2019 Ashes series, so just want to make sure I'm going in there as fresh as I can."
Men's Dettol ODI Series v England
Thursday Nov 17: Adelaide Oval, 1:50pm
Saturday Nov 19: SCG, 2:20pm
Tuesday Nov 22: MCG, 2:20pm
Australia ODI squad: Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Ashton Agar, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Marnus Labuschagne, Mitchell Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, Marcus Stoinis, David Warner, Adam Zampa
England ODI squad: Jos Buttler (c), Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Sam Curran, Liam Dawson, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Jason Roy, Phil Salt, Olly Stone, James Vince, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Luke Wood
https://www.cricket.com.au/news/pat...ll-australia-england-adelaide-oval/2022-11-16
