Toss Pakistan chose to field vs Australia
Returning quicks Lance Morris and Spencer Johnson will have to wait to be unleashed amid five changes for Australia after Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl in the series-deciding third ODI at Optus Stadium.
Quick Sean Abbott, who played in the series opener, also returned for Australia along with experienced allrounder and Perth local Marcus Stoinis. Allrounder Cooper Connolly has been listed to bat at No. 5, while Johnson and Morris were selected over Xavier Bartlett.
Allrounder Aaron Hardie has been listed to bat at No. 3 – the position he fulfils for Perth Scorchers in the BBL.
Australia are without skipper Pat Cummins, Steven Smith, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Marnus Labuschagne, who have set their sights on preparing for the first Test against India.
Josh Inglis, 29, becomes the 30th ODI captain for Australia and also will lead his team in the subsequent T20I series against Pakistan. Given his heavy workload with the gloves, Inglis has never taken the reins of Western Australia or Scorchers in the BBL but did captain a very strong Prime Minister’s XI in a first-class match against West Indies two years ago.
After a stunning nine-wicket victory in Adelaide, rebounding after a two-wicket loss at the MCG, Pakistan are on the verge of a rare series victory in Australia. Their pace attack led by in-form Haris Rauf will relish the prospect of the expected fast and bouncy conditions at Optus Stadium.
Pakistan named the same XI for the third straight game in the type of stability that has been a welcome tonic following recent off-field turmoil which resulted in white-ball head coach Gary Kirsten quitting just a week before the tour.
It has been a relatively mild spring in Perth and pleasant temperatures in the mid-20s are expected throughout the day fixture. A crowd of around 20,000 is expected for the first ODI at Optus Stadium since 2018.
Australia: 1 Matt Short, 2 Jake Fraser-McGurk, 3 Aaron Hardie, 4 Josh Inglis (capt, wk), 5 Cooper Connolly, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Sean Abbott, 9 Adam Zampa, 10 Spencer Johnson, 11 Lance Morris
Pakistan: 1 Saim Ayub, 2 Abdullah Shafique, 3 Babar Azam, 4 Mohammad Rizwan (capt, wk), 5 Kamran Ghulam, 6 Salman Agha, 7 Irfan Khan, 8 Shaheen Shah Afridi, 9 Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, 11 Mohammad Hasnain
