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Fast bowler Zak Chappell will join Derbyshire at the end of the season after the expiry of his contract with Nottinghamshire.Chappell, 25, came through at Leicestershire and was in high demand when he moved to Trent Bridge at the end of 2018. But he only managed 18 appearances for Notts across all three formats in four seasons with the club, twice going out on loan to Gloucestershire.He featured in Nottinghamshire’s Royal London Cup opener on Tuesday and will remain available for selection until the end of the summer.”Zak is an incredibly skilled bowler and a great addition to our attack for all formats,” Derbyshire’s head of cricket, Mickey Arthur, said. “He probably hasn’t played the amount of cricket he’s wanted to in recent years, but he’s kept developing and worked hard on his game, now he has the chance to show what he can do as part of our bowling unit.”Signing Zak is a big move for the club, as it gives us even more competition and quality within our ranks for the 2023 season and beyond.”Chappell claimed his best first-class bowling figures of 6 for 44 with Leicestershire in 2018, but has not played consistently since then. He has taken nine Championship wickets at 37.77 this season, but enjoyed more success in the Blast with 11 wickets and an economy of 7.70.Chappell said: “When I heard of Derbyshire’s interest, I jumped at the chance to come and work with a top-class coaching unit in Mickey Arthur and Ajmal Shahzad.”Last season, I played a good amount across all formats and I feel I’m at a point now where I need to be playing top-level cricket week in, week out and signing for Derbyshire gives me the chance to do that.”Derbyshire have an ambitious project with plenty of quality in the squad. You can see the direction Mickey wants to take the club in and that really attracted me.”Nottinghamshire’s head coach Peter Moores said that injuries and competition for places had limited Chappell’s chances at Trent Bridge.”Our bowling attack has certainly been competitive to break into for this past couple of years and that, combined with picking up some injuries at key times, has limited Zak’s opportunities to play first-team cricket,” Moores said. “He wants to be playing regularly across all formats. Hopefully this move gives him an opportunity to do that, and it keeps him close to his roots in the East Midlands, so we completely understand and respect his decision.”His attitude around the group has been positive throughout his time at Trent Bridge. He trains hard, has gone about his periods of injury rehab professionally and has handled his decision to leave in a respectful and positive way.”There’s lots to play for and plenty we can still achieve during the remainder of the season – and I know Zak will be giving it everything. Once we get to the end of September, it will be a case of thanking him for his efforts and wishing him well for the next part of his career.”

India batter S Meghana will join the women’s squad for the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Thursday night after recovering from Covid-19. Meghana could be available for India’s first group game against Australia on Friday.Meghana is believed to have cleared her Covid test on Wednesday and was put on the first available flight to join the squad in the UK.Allrounder Pooja Vastrakar, who had also tested positive for Covid-19, is likely to remain in quarantine in Bengaluru until Saturday. Her travel to the UK is subject to her passing two Covid tests and a mandatory fitness test.Related

• Cricket at the 2022 Commonwealth Games – all you need to know

• Vastrakar, Meghana test positive for Covid-19

• CWG 2022 – India are medal contenders, but the gold seems reserved for Australia

Vastrakar could fly out on Sunday at the earliest, which will make her available for India’s last league fixture against Barbados on Wednesday.An official from the Indian Olympics Association (IOA) had confirmed Meghana and Vastrakar’s positive tests a day after the India team had left for the Commonwealth Games on Monday.This is the first time that women’s cricket has been included in the Commonwealth Games, and the competition will be played in the T20 format. India are in Group A along with Australia, Pakistan and Barbados, while Group B comprises England, South Africa, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.India open their campaign against Australia on Friday before taking on Pakistan on July 31, and then play their final group game against Barbados on August 3. All the matches in the Commonwealth games will be classified as T20 internationals.India squad: Harmanpreet Kaur (capt), Smriti Mandhana (vice-capt), Shafali Verma, S Meghana, Taniya Bhatia (wk), Yastika Bhatia (wk), Deepti Sharma, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Pooja Vastrakar, Meghna Singh, Renuka Thakur, Jemimah Rodrigues, Radha Yadav, Harleen Deol, Sneh RanaStandbys: Richa Ghosh, Poonam Yadav, Simran Bahadur

Put those Darren Stevens retirement stories away for a moment because he is not quite finished yet. A return to Leicestershire, the county where his career began, felt like a fairytale ending – only he has no intention to end. Influential contributions with bat and ball helped give Kent an 82-run win in this Royal London Cup play-off and now takes them to a semi-final tie against Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl on Tuesday.If Stevens’ intervention with the bat felt entirely predictable – 41 from 24 balls with The Meet Café & Bar at deep midwicket fearing partial demolition from his wrecking ball – his bowling spell was a bonus. Ten overs in mid-innings for 37 runs felt as if Leicestershire had taken their largesse too far as he was met conservatively throughout. It was canny stuff but perhaps not that canny. He had a towel down before his final over, as if determined to see the job through, and suitably somebody should have brought him out a little stool to sit on while they did it.Grace Road is one of the quieter grounds on the circuit, even in their first home knockout tie for 11 years, but sporadic cries of “Stevo” punctuated the day, often for no specific reason. Perhaps some of them came from Leicestershire supporters who would like him to return for a final year. Coincidentally that knockout tie was also against Kent when Paul Nixon, now their head coach, made 31 in a three-wicket win. Considering the ECB’s machinations, it’s a toss-up who is most likely still to be around another 11 years from now – Leicestershire or Stevens.His last ball should have been the perfect finish. Scott Steel, who fulfilled the anchor role for Leicestershire much as Ben Compton had done previously for Kent, risked a leg-side pick-up, but it fell to the 12th man, James Logan, on the half volley and trundled for four. By the time Logan left the field, his duties complete, Stevens’ hands were still on hips in mild-mannered exasperation, but his job had been done.Leicestershire still needed 196 from 21 at 9.33 an over at that point and even though they had seven wickets left they never really made contact with it. A flurry of runs and then Steel swung rather mindlessly at a short ball from Nathan Gilchrist to sky one straight up in the air and fall for 65 from 94 balls.The batter who might have turned the tie for Leicestershire was Wiaan Mulder, their South African allrounder, one of the driving forces behind their play-offs place. Mulder made 81 from 71, his innings ending when he was bowled by a delivery that jagged back substantially, and low, from Joey Evison, who suitably is the young allrounder positioned to fill Stevens’ shoes. Nobody sang “Joey” in homage, even though he had earlier made an excellent half-century, but as Stevens has already recognised, he is a player of considerable promise and can write his own tunes.Related

• Steven Croft lights the way in Blackpool as Lancashire scale Notts' tall target

• Strauss review proposes smaller Championship top tier

• Stevens vows to play on next season after 'gutting' release aged 46

• Stevens' white-ball Canterbury swansong takes Kent into play-offs

Kent’s early incursions came through Harry Podmore, whose career has been so curtailed by injury that a decade after his county debut for Middlesex he was playing only his 99th match across all formats. That he was fit and firing after recovering from severe side and knee injuries was a considerable bonus. His first wicket was a bit of a gimme as Nicky Welch slapped him to point, but he bowled Rishi Patel and Lous Kimber with excellent deliveries that seamed back through the gate. Grant Stewart made short shrift of the tail to finish with 4 for 42. Kent had been helped a little by the fact that the surface died a little as the game progressed, but as Nixon agreed, Leicestershire did not lift their game when most needed.Stevens’ innings had been marked by a succession of flat bats with Ed Barnes conceding three of his four sixes, enough for Barnes to finish with undistinguished figures of 2 for 75 in eight overs, his mood uplifted by two good wickets. Leicestershire set two short thirds to him and appeared to have a theory, but it didn’t come off. Predictably, he eventually fell short at deep midwicket and a repair bill for The Meet was avoided after all. It was another South African who carried Leicestershire’s fight with the ball, Beuran Hendricks, a lithe left-armer who is more slippery than he looks, was the bwler who silenced Stevens and he was the pick of their attack with 2 for 35.Half-centuries from Evison and Compton in an opening stand of 95 in 18 overs handed Kent an initiative that they never relinquished. Evison drove Kimber from the attack with three sixes in two overs between straight and long-on before he was dismissed trying to sweep Steel; Compton, his off stump clipped by Mulder as he played defensively, made 56 from 80 balls with only four boundaries and was probably out at a perfect time, although he loves batting so might not think so. A third Kent half-century, this time from Joe Denly, kept Leicestershire at bay.

Lancashire have been deducted six points in this year’s LV= County Championship by the Cricket Discipline Commission panel.The club, who are not in action in this week’s round of games, remain third in this year’s Division One title race, but are now 35 points adrift of the leaders Hampshire, and 30 back from Surrey, whom they face in the final round.In a statement, Lancashire acknowledged the CDC’s independence from the ECB in disciplinary matters, and that they have no right of appeal. However, the club also put on record its dissatisfaction with the sanction, which has effectually ended their outside hopes of challenging for the title.”Following all our hard work throughout the winter and in the County Championship this season, to be deducted points for what are, in our opinion, minor indiscretions is gut-wrenching,” Mark Chilton, the director of cricket, told the club website.Lancashire were handed a maximum 12-point suspended punishment in November 2021 after an accumulation of fixed penalties for pitch and/or equipment damage during the preceding 12 months, and Chilton recognised that that had been a factor in the punishment.”With our suspended sentence from previous indiscretions, we knew the position we were in at the start of the season, addressed this as a group and set our expectations of one another,” he added.”In our opinion, both fixed penalties we received were unduly harsh punishments, which could have gone either way, and it is this inconsistency in the decision-making that makes this difficult to take.”This year’s “minimum level one offences” were committed by Dane Vilas, against Warwickshire in June, and Luke Wells against Northamptonshire in July, and in a subsequent Twitter post, Wells apologised for the outbursts that had played a part in the punishment.”I’m gutted that I was implicated in this after hitting my bat on the ground after being bowled last year v Glamorgan at Cardiff and shouting in frustration whilst inside the changing room at Northants,” Wells wrote. “Apologies to Lancs fans and of course the lads who’ve scrapped so hard for every single point we’ve got this year.”

Big picture

Five days on from one of the most captivating tussles ever witnessed at the Grand Old G, another of international cricket’s most storied rivalries takes to its oldest stage for a contest laced with a different flavour of existential jeopardy. Whereas India versus Pakistan was a clash of geopolitical magnitude, in both hype and denouement, England versus Australia offers a more fundamental sporting showdown.To the winner, the prospect of a tournament lifeline, a chance to keep a route to the semi-finals in their own hands. To the loser, the mounting prospect of an early elimination: an ignominious fate for the holders of each of the ICC’s two World Cup trophies. Even allowing for the threat of further rain-related twists, two spluttering campaigns require some urgent ignition if they are to recover the ground so far lost – in Australia’s case to a crushingly one-sided loss in their opening match against New Zealand, and in England’s, an oddly meek surrender in the showers against Ireland at this same venue.Related

• Finch acing verbal volleys but needs his bat to do the talking

• Zampa's return could be the silver lining Australia need

• Wade tests positive for Covid-19, could still play against England

• Buttler laments 'really disappointing day' for England

For their part, Australia will hope that that ignition has already happened. At the moment of Glenn Maxwell’s dismissal in the 13th over of their 158-run chase against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, they were a side without direction, as their NRR began to drift towards double figures with Aaron Finch stuck and stodgy in what he later admitted was an “unusual” knock of 31 not out from 42 balls. But then up popped Marcus Stoinis with a devastatingly straightforward bout of range-hitting – and by the time he’d blazed an Australia-record 17-ball fifty, all those doubts had been dispatched to the stands.Stoinis struck six sixes in his 18-ball stay against Sri Lanka – more than all his team-mates combined had produced in either of Australia’s first two matches of the tournament, but moreover, three times as many as England have produced in total against Group 1’s supposed lesser lights, Afghanistan and Ireland. Alex Hales lumped Fazalhaq Farooqi over long-on in Perth, Moeen Ali tonked Gareth Delany in the same direction at Melbourne, three balls before the rain sealed England’s fate against the Irish … and that, so far, has been that.It’s a baffling moment for Jos Buttler’s team to come over all gun-shy, especially given the free-spirited mayhem that they seemed to be unleashing in their warm-up week on these shores. Australia themselves encountered the full weight of England’s power-hitting in conceding 208 for 6 in Perth at the start of the month, while Liam Livingstone’s six – clean out of the Gabba in their practice match against Pakistan – was widely perceived as a statement of intent from a deep and formidable batting line-up that has not been renowned for dying wondering in recent years.Moeen Ali has hit one of only two sixes from England in this campaign•Getty Images

But what we have here instead is an unexpectedly cagey state of affairs. To a greater or lesser degree, both England’s and Australia’s batting has struggled for that fluid faith in its constituent parts that epitomised their recent glory days. Buttler’s rare first-over dismissal against Ireland can probably be written off as an aberration, but with his sidekick Hales so far failing to repay the faith in his recall, and Ben Stokes at No. 4 a very high-profile work-in-progress, the uncertainty has been contagious.Dawid Malan has reverted to his old anchor-man habits, with 53 runs from 67 balls to date, and though Moeen did his utmost to tilt the DLS calculations in England’s favour as the rain closed in against Ireland, the inflexibility of England’s batting order was revealing. Eoin Morgan, you sense, would not have shied away from promoting his heavy artillery in a bid to get ahead of the rate in tough conditions, even if it had meant risking being all out for 80 in the process. Buttler’s subsequent statement that ‘England should let it hurt’ was perhaps a tacit admission that their campaign has not yet found the right levels of emotional investment.Nowithstanding Stoinis’s exploits, Australia aren’t exactly in their happy place either. But for rain in Canberra, England would have thumped them 3-0 in the recent T20I series – their consecutive eight-run wins were more comprehensive than the final margins suggested – while their camp has been dogged by the spectre of Covid-19 in recent days, with Adam Zampa missing the Sri Lanka match and Matthew Wade now under the weather too.An early exit for the defending champions on home soil wouldn’t be unprecedented for Australia – the same happened in 50-over cricket when they hosted the 1992 World Cup – but it would be deeply galling all the same. Their survival may require a knock-out blow against their oldest foes, and vice versa. But for the victor, who knows what a fillip to their spluttering campaign such a scalp would be.Marcus Stoinis, playing at his Western Australia homeground, was the star of the show in the last game•Getty Images

Form guide

Australia WLLLW (last five completed T20Is, most recent first)
England LWWWW

In the spotlight

Five matches (and a warm-up knockabout) into his T20I comeback, and there’s still no real clarity on where Ben Stokes‘ short-form game is at. A haul of 41 runs at 10.25 from 42 balls speaks of a player still trying to get his eye back in, which – in the context of this must-win game – isn’t the ideal tempo for your pivotal No .4. And yet, Stokes’ many strings are manifesting themselves in other ways in the tournament so far – most notably in his unexpected but very effective role as a new-ball option. A haul of 3 for 27 in 6.2 overs is mitigated by the fact that the first (and seventh) overs are the most favourable for bowling, given that batters tend to take a moment to gauge the conditions before going hell for leather. Nevertheless, he’s extracted some prodigious swing in that period, and brought his force of personality to bear in a manner that has so far been absent from his batting. At some stage, you sense his all-round game will click back into place again, but can England afford to wait for inspiration to strike?Much of the same could be said for Australia’s own No. 4, Glenn Maxwell. Patience has been worn thin in recent weeks, in which Maxwell has ground his gears in a bid for some traction but to little avail. And yet, in consecutive games against New Zealand and Sri Lanka, he’s just about threatened to poke his head out the other side. Scores of 28 from 20 and 23 from 12 are hardly proof of his renewed threat. But in each game he scored as many boundaries (four) as he had managed in nine completed innings since June, and against Sri Lanka in particular, he provided the spark that Australia’s chase desperately needed ahead of Stoinis’s rampant finish. Like Stokes, his value extends beyond the runs he offers too. The timely wicket of Dasun Shanaka in his only over on Wednesday was a key factor in cramping Sri Lanka’s ambitions.

Team news

Hindsight suggests that England might have preferred to rest their trump card, Mark Wood, for the Ireland match, given the 48-hour turnaround between these two games, and the fact that another thrillingly high-octane display could not deliver the victory his team craved. The indications from head coach, Matthew Mott, however, are that England will field an unchanged XI – meaning Chris Woakes will get another outing in his return from long-term injury, and Hales will be trusted once again at the top of the order despite Phil Salt’s claims to a starting berth.England (probable): 1 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 2 Alex Hales / Phil Salt, 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Harry Brook, 7 Moeen Ali, 8 Sam Curran, 9 Chris Woakes, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood.Mark Wood has been England’s trump card with the ball•Albert Perez/ICC/Getty Images

Zampa’s recovery from Covid means he’s likely to slot into the side in place of Ashton Agar, as Australia’s solitary change from their Sri Lanka line-up. Wade is set to keep his place behind the stumps in spite of his own Covid diagnosis.Australia (probable): 1 Aaron Finch (capt), 2 David Warner, 3 Mitchell Marsh, 4 Glenn Maxwell, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Tim David, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Josh Hazlewood.

Pitch and conditions

The MCG’s surface proved zippy in the damp on Wednesday, and overall is a far cry from the range of stodgy drop-in pitches that had given cricket there a bad name in recent years. Either way, the decisive factor is threatening once again to come from overhead. More grim weather is in store, and this may be another case of shower-dodging and DLS bargaining.

Stats and trivia

• England and Australia have met on three previous occasions at the T20 World Cup. Australia won their first encounter, in crushing fashion at Cape Town in the inaugural tournament in 2007, but have been seen off in each of the next two – in the final of the 2010 event in Barbados, and in Dubai 12 months ago, where a Buttler special sealed victory with 50 balls to spare.
• Adil Rashid remains in the running to become England’s first man to 100 T20I wickets, but his returns this winter have been noticeably sparse. Since claiming four wickets in his first three matches against Pakistan in Karachi, he’s added just two more in eight outings, at a leaky economy rate of 8.58.
• Sam Curran, by contrast, has been England’s golden arm in the same period. Since the start of the Pakistan tour, he’s claimed 19 wickets at 14.36 in ten matches, and in the process has more than doubled his previous T20I wickets haul of 16 at 32.00 in 21 games.

Quotes

“I don’t feel any more pressure than I ever have. The only pressure is the expectation you put on yourself.”
“If you needed a game to get up for – a must-win game – England and Australia at the MCG is certainly one of those.”

Keshav Maharaj is in danger of missing the 2023 ODI World Cup after rupturing his left Achilles tendon while celebrating a wicket. South Africa’s lead spinner is looking at a minimum of six months out of the game and may not be able to make it to India in October when the iCC tournament is due to begin.Maharaj suffered the injury on Saturday when he took off on a run to celebrate the dismissal of West Indies’ Kyle Mayers in the second Test match in Johannesburg. He pulled up almost immediately and needed to be stretchered off the field and to a hospital. Scans taken there revealed significant damage and he is now on crutches, with a moon boot on his left leg.Maharaj has only played 27 ODIs since his debut in 2017. He has a much bigger role within the Test side as their hold-up bowler. His exploits include a taking a nine-for in Sri Lanka and given the upcoming World Cup is taking place in similar conditions, he might have had a reasonable chance of participating.In the short-term, Maharaj will not be able to join Middlesex, having signed on to play for them in the English County Championship and the T20 Blast later this year. He will turn his attention to rehab instead, much like Keegan Petersen, another long-term absentee as a result of a freakish on-field injury.South Africa waited until Maharaj was back at the Wanderers to celebrate their 284-run victory over West Indies, their final game of this World Test Championship cycle. Their next red-ball assignment is not until December 2023 against India.

Neil Wagner has been ruled out of the second Test against Sri Lanka with a bulging disc in his back and a torn right hamstring. The recovery time for the injuries is around six weeks.Wagner had left the field late in the third session on day three of the ongoing Test in Christchurch, feeling serious discomfort in his back and leg. He failed a fitness Test before play on day four on Sunday but will be available to bat if required.In December, Wagner signed a deal with Yorkshire to play the first ten games of the County Championship season, though now appears unlikely to be fit for their opening fixture against Leicestershire on April 6.New Zealand, meanwhile, have called up seamer Doug Bracewell into the squad.”We all know how much playing Test cricket for New Zealand means to Neil and we are all disappointed to see him side-lined like this,” New Zealand coach Gary Stead said. “The fact he was still hoping to play on, carrying these injuries shows you just how determined he is to try and give his all for the team.”Doug is a skilful bowler who has been in strong form for the Central Stags across formats this season. We believe his skills will complement the rest of the bowlers we have in the group going into the next Test.”Bracewell, 32, had last played a Test in 2016. In addition to the three fast bowlers still playing the first Test – Tim Southee, Matt Henry, and Blair Tickner – New Zealand also have right-armer Scott Kuggeleijn in the squad. Where Kuggeleijn only made his Test debut last month, Bracewell brings substantially more experience, having played 27 Tests where he has bagged 72 wickets.Will Young, who is part of the Test squad, will be released to play in the next round of the Plunket Shield. He will return before the second Test starts on Friday.”We think it’s important for Will to keep getting cricket under his belt,” Stead said. “With the timing of this round and the next Test we thought it was a good opportunity to get him on the park and have time in first-class match conditions.”

Big picture: Both teams coming off series defeats

Would you believe it, not only have Australia and England been drawn in the same group at a global tournament, but their Champions Trophy returns also start against one another. Universe (ICC), you’ve done it again! And yet, amid such predictable money-grabbing comes a bit of shameful excitement. Even without mentioning the “A” word, these are two bitter rivals in unique states. A champion Australia side shorn of some of those champions, and an England side increasingly desperate to rediscover former glory.The lack of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood gives the ODI World Cup holders a less intimidating feel, and subsequently shifts the onus on a batting line-up led by Travis Head’s brand of “Ah, we’ll have a go”. Quite how that responsibility will manifest itself to what is more or less an established group of batters remains to be seen particularly as captain Steven Smith, standing in for Cummins and the injured Mitchell Marsh, who would have likely deputised, weighs up the right combinations for his top seven.That Australia can call upon Nathan Ellis, Sean Abbott, Spencer Johnson and Ben Dwarshius to fill big bowling boots reflects the enviable depth of Australian cricket, even if those bowlers’ most notable successes – Abbott aside – have come exclusively in T20s. Extrapolating that to 50-over cricket will be its own challenge. Australia are not putting much stock in the fact they arrive off the back of a 2-0 ODI series loss against Sri Lanka. The same could be said of England, even if their 3-0 defeat to India elicited far more anger and ridicule.Related

• Smith, Australia hope champion DNA outweighs big-name absences

• Buttler: Smith has 'free hit' at No. 3 in reshuffled England batting order

Not training enough and golfing too much were the main takeaways outside a group that actually seems in good spirits considering they have now lost all four ODI series since the 2023 World Cup. To be expected, of course, as negative vibes have no place in Brendon McCullum’s house.In keeping, England’s break to the UAE came with a view of shedding the baggage from a travel-and defeat-heavy month in India, with added benefit of escaping the press hysteria around focusing on the wrong kind of white ball. But McCullum’s task requires a more hands-on and technically focused approach with a group which continues to look uneasy with bat and ball in this format.How much of that McCullum can change in such a short space of time – he has only been in charge of the limited-overs set-up for a month – will be determined over the coming weeks. Right now, it probably helps to have a familiar foe on the horizon to drum up a little extra heart and vigour.As for Jos Buttler, the next fortnight will go some way to determining whether he sticks with the captaincy. A promise to smile more at the start of the year felt optimistic at the time, and has proved as much. But after missing all of England’s ODIs in 2024, he will be better for the three ticked off earlier at the start of February.Of those Buttler missed last year due to a calf injury was the five-match series against Australia at the end of the home summer, which ensures greater familiarity at international level between the players, even if many of them have rubbed shoulders as team-mates or opponents at domestic level.Australia, made up of a few of the alternates substituted into their Champions Trophy squad, triumphed 3-2 on that occasion, having been 2-0 up before taking their foot off the gas. All five results were blowouts of one kind or another. And just as it was for India, Australia’s spinners made hay against England’s batters, with Adam Zampa doing the brunt of the damage, supplemented by handy contributions from Glenn Maxwell, Marnus Labuschagne and Head.Spencer Johnson replaces Mitchell Starc as the left-arm quick in Australia’s squad•Associated Press

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)Australia: LLLLW
England: LLLLW

In the spotlight: Spencer Johnson and Harry Brook

Starc is as close to irreplaceable a bowler as you can get in white-ball cricket. But if you’re going to try, a bloke who is six-feet-four and also bowls left-arm rockets is a great place to start. The best of Spencer Johnson has come in the shortest format, and with only three ODI caps spaced out over more than a year, the burden of replacing Starc at the front and back of an innings will weigh heavy on his broad shoulders. After taking his maiden wickets in Sri Lanka earlier this month, much more will be required of Johnson in Pakistan.Speaking of Pakistan, is there a better place for Harry Brook to rediscover his groove? This country’s pitches have been kind to him, albeit in the Test format, where he averages 84.10 courtesy of four hundreds – the most recent being a triple. England’s newly-appointed vice-captain left the India tour in a funk, with a lowly average of 16.66 in the ODIs brought about by an inability to attack spin effectively. But he will take heart from flatter decks and skippering with distinction against Australia last year, which included registering his maiden ODI century in the 3rd ODI at Chester-le-Street.

Team news

Given the absences, Australia’s pace attack pretty much picks itself. Allrounder Aaron Hardie, the immediate beneficiary of Marcus Stoinis’ retirement from the 50-over format on the eve of the tournament, could sit out for Labuschagne to play as an extra batter. Dwarshius’ left-arm/left-hand option may see him pip Abbott to the bowling allrounder slot.Australia (probable): 1 Travis Head, 2 Matthew Short, 3 Steven Smith (capt), 4 Josh Inglis (wk), 5 Marnus Labuschagne, 6 Alex Carey, 7 Glenn Maxwell, 8 Sean Abbott/Ben Dwarshius, 9 Nathan Ellis, 10 Adam Zampa, 11 Spencer JohnsonEngland’s batting reshuffle will see Jamie Smith at No. 3 and Joe Root at No. 4•Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images

England announced their XI two days out from the match – early by their unusually prompt standards – with Jamie Smith not just back fit from a calf injury, but also batting at No. 3 while also playing as wicketkeeper. It is not quite a nuclear option, but it does involve pushing Joe Root to No. 4 and taking the gloves from Phil Salt, who kept throughout the ODIs in India. With just four frontline bowling options, Root and Liam Livingstone must join forces effectively to provide a serviceable fifth. The pace of Mark Wood and Jofra Archer, playing his first 50-over tournament since his Super Over heroics in 2019’s World Cup final, will present Australia’s starkest challenge.England: 1 Phil Salt, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Jamie Smith (wk), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jos Buttler, 7 Liam Livingstone, 8 Brydon Carse, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood

Pitch and conditions

ODI pitches at the Gaddafi Stadium are almost always flat belters. The venue hosted two matches in the recent tri-series, with New Zealand posting 330 for 6 to beat Pakistan, and then chasing down 305 with six wickets and eight balls to spare. Lahore is expected to be slightly cooler than it was for the tri-series, partly because of rain this week, which ended up hampering England’s preparations on Thursday. Dew is very rarely a factor at this time of year.5:44

Knight questions idea of Root, Buttler coming down the order

Stats and trivia

• Australia and England have a tight head-to-head record in the Champions Trophy, with England ahead just by a 3-2 margin.
• Maxwell and Buttler are the only members available from the two teams’ squads from the 2013 edition of the tournament.
• Archer is two wickets away from 50 in the ODIs.
• Jamie Smith has only previously batted at No. 3 once in 18 List A innings – for Surrey against Kent in 2019.

Quotes

“I’m going to have my work cut out for me with some of that fast bowling England have got. They’re high quality, highly skilled and high pace. I’ve got to make sure I start well, earn the right, and see where the game takes us. I’m just worried about making sure I start well for the team.”
“He’s been fit and firing now for 18 months or so since being out of the game for a while. He’s really excited to put together that kind of length of time back on the field, and he’s obviously a superstar of the game for us. He is someone, as a captain, you always know you can turn to and throw the ball. He’s obviously going to be really looking forward to the game tomorrow.”