Cricket-Match-Special ... A forum for discussion

Three T20s coming up v Australia, and three ODIs. The second of the T20s is on BBC, that's next Sunday.

Surprised the Aussies are coming.

T20 squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Joe Denly, Chris Jordan, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood. Reserves: Liam Livingstone, Saqib Mahmood.

ODI squad: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Tom Banton, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler, Sam Curran, Tom Curran, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood. Reserves: Joe Denly, Saqib Mahmood.

Test players are back, except Stokes. Root left out the T20s. No place for Willey who did so well v Ireland.

England should be well placed to start quickly. Aussies won't have played any meaningful cricket for a while. England have had a few bites at the white ball cherry

England will need to bowl much better than they did against Pakistan.... much better.

not sure I've seen Sam C bowl in T20

Yes, England have a big advantage.

If this was a 3 match test series they'd start slowly, anyway...... lose the first test after a shocking performance on day one that they couldn't recover from over the remaining 4 days

why break the habit of a lifetime?

These are cricinfos guesses for the teams.

England: 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Tom Banton / Dawid Malan, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Moeen Ali, 6 Sam Billings, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Jordan, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood / Tom Curran

That leaves out Denly.

Australia: 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 David Warner, 3 Steven Smith, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Mitchell Marsh, 6 Alex Carey, 7 Ashton Agar, 8 Adam Zampa, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 Kane Richardson

That leaves out Abbott, Hazelwood, Labuschagne, Lyon, Meredith, Philippe, Sams, Tye, Stoinis, Wade.

I guess that squad is so big to cover the ODIs too.

Southampton 1800. No rain forecast.

Nor sure I go along with the Buttler opening thing. All his success has come as a devastating finisher as far as I can tell.

I just hope that this doesn't become another 'I've started so I'll finish' totemic Mr Ed decision

He has been opening though. No Jason Roy of course. Or Hales.

I'd bat Buttler at four.

It might be Banton goes in first.

I read that the long term aim was to have Roy and Buttler opening with YJB at 3 then Morgan, Stokes, so the only batting slot up for grabs is 6. If Mo gets that followed by 5 bowlers it means England are fielding 7 bowlers and if they do that it means they have no faith in their bowling plans or personnel

that also suggests to me that there is absolutely no place in the side for honest Joe in the future, and Banton/Malan/Denly are just squad fillers for injury rather than genuine contenders. Only Billings has a chance of making the team, but only then if Mo gets his bowling mojo back and the team feel confident enough to bat him at 7 as part of a 5 bowler plus Stokes attack.

Buttler at 6 gives England so many different batting options, including Buttler sliding up or down the order depending on the match situation, because then only Billings is an injury filler.

But why be flexible when you can be intransigent?

Looks like that batting innings went a bit wrong. Without Stokes and with Buttler opening, the middle order has gone from ATG to a bit iffy.

Storming start from the Aussies.

Aussies doing this pretty easily at the moment. Wood and Archer had fun against the speed gun but no effect on the batsmen. With no wickets going down yet its hard to see what they can do to rein them in.

Good comeback over from Wood then so just 91 off ten , but 7.2 per over should be easy from here. Rashid went round the park last over ...Morgan looks out of ideas.

I'm also in the camp of preferring Buttler as a finisher , by the way. He got a fast start today with 44 off 29 ; but they have a few players who can do that. Reckon his ability to monster the late overs is the more important use for him - especially with Stokes not playing.

Finch out ! Gives 'em a sniff I guess...

I don't rate Moeen but England obviously back him. Just don't understand why they play him and then don't give him a bowl. Surely he can't be playing as a specialist batsman?

Just brings in the Bleached Bradman though.

Moeen getting used at last. Though Morgan once again has seemed reluctant to give him the ball.

Smith happy enough to see him

Aussies cruising this.

Out of the box suggestion, pick Joe Denly and give him the new ball.

Has the best bowling average in the squad (admittedly a small sample size) and took 4/19 the only time he has opened the bowling for England.