Australia Take On England In The Precursor To The World Cup

The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is exactly one month away. As a precursor to the biggest tournament in the cricketing universe Australia, England and India play in a short three nation tournament which will go a long way to indicate the fortunes of these big teams in the big tournament next month.

The opening match will see hosts Australia take on arch rivals England on Jan. 16th at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Australia will be led by George Bailey and England by Eoin Morgan. Michael Clarke is still injured and the Australian public are hoping that he makes a complete recovery in time for the first match at the World Cup against England on Feb.14th at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

If the recently concluded Test Series against India is anything to go by then the Australian batting line up is in terrific form. Special mention must be made of the Test captain Steve Smith along with opener David Warner. One day specialists Glenn Maxwell will add depth to both the batting as well as the bowling line up.

The bowling is mostly loaded with pace bowlers. Mitchell Johnson, who was rested in the last Test Match will be fresh and ready to go. Josh Hazelwood had a pretty successful Test series as well. The spin department will be headed by left arm spinner Xavier Doherty.

England have announced their arrival Down Under very loud and clear. In the two practice matches against the ACT Invitational XI and the Prime Minister's XI they batted first and scored 364 and 391 runs off 50 overs respectively. These two batting performances will do their confidence a world of good ahead of their extended stay at Australia.

English bowling is their stronger suit. James Anderson and Stuart Broad will lead the attack. Captain Eoin Morgan and Ian Bell are the leading batsmen that the squad will look up to make the bulk of the runs.

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