Key events
Preamble
Martin Pegan
Hello and welcome to live coverage of the first one-day international between Australia and England in Perth. Australia might have hoped to be focused on bouncing back from their Test series defeat in South Africa with a change of pace in three ODIs and five T20Is to come against the old enemy. But the spotlight has shone much further back to their previous Test tour of South Africa and the sandpaper scandal that rocked the country – and the cricket world – eight and a half years ago, following the release of Usman Khawaja’s book Sabr this week.
Australia Test captain Pat Cummins has spoken at length today around his recollections of what happened in Cape Town in 2018, about what Khawaja has alleged in his memoir and in media either side of its release on Tuesday, and much, much more. We’ll point you to more on that shortly.
But for now, this first ODI between the arch rivals sends them on the road toward the Cricket World Cup in less than 12 months, with these three 50-over matches all the more important for being Australia’s last for eight months. The defending champions have an eye on the future with a relatively young squad named for this series, while they come with middling form after a 2-1 series defeat in South Africa in September. England have their own mounting concerns after winning one of four matches during an ODI tri-series against Sri Lanka and hosts Pakistan last month.
Toss and confirmed teams will be coming up shortly – with the first ball to be bowled at 11.30am AWST/2.30pm AEDT/3.30am BST. In the meantime, get in touch with your thoughts and predictions by email or find me @martinpegan on Bluesky.
