England bowl, Head captains as Australia ring changes – T20 IPL 2024

Toss England chose to bowl first vs Australia

Travis Head will captain Australia for the first time in Friday night’s second T20 international against England in Cardiff. Head will face the first ball on his captaincy debut after England sent Australia in on a sunny evening at Sophia Gardens, with his side targeting a win that would seal the series with a game to spare.

Head deputises as captain due to Mitchell Marsh feeling unwell. “It’s nice to fill in and do the job,” he said at the toss. He has plenty of leadership experience with South Australia, Adelaide Strikers and even Australia A. Jake Fraser-McGurk, who made 0, 16 and 0 in his first three T20Is in Scotland, replaces Marsh at No. 3.

Australia made two other changes, with Xavier Bartlett absent due to a side strain and Josh Hazlewood rested. They will bat incredibly deep, with Cooper Connolly carded to come in at No. 9 and Sean Abbott – who hit a century for Surrey in the T20 Blast last season – due in as low as No. 10.

Head’s opposite number, Phil Salt, becomes the third Welshman to captain England – after Cyril Walters and Tony Lewis – and the first to do so on Welsh soil.

England made a single change, with Brydon Carse making his first international appearance of 2024. Carse was banned for three months this summer after he was found to have breached the ECB’s gambling regulations, placing over 300 bets on matches between 2017-19. He did not place bets on any games he was involved in.

Carse replaces Jofra Archer, who was rested with the ECB opting to manage his workload despite the fact that England cannot afford to lose. Meanwhile, Liam Livingstone wins his 50th T20I cap, seven years after making his debut at Taunton.

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 Brydon Carse, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Saqib Mahmood, 11 Reece Topley.

Australia: 1 Travis Head (capt), 2 Matt Short, 3 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Tim David, 7 Cameron Green, 8 Aaron Hardie, 9 Cooper Connolly, 10 Sean Abbott, 11 Adam Zampa.

Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98

Source: ESPN Crickinfo

Leave a Reply Cancel reply