England will lock horns with Australia in the 4th ODI of the five-match series at Headingley in Leeds on Friday.
In the first two ODIs of the series, England were comfortably outplayed by the Aussies, after their Ashes defeat and a series of high-profile retirements. But the Eoin Morgan-led England bounced back strongly to thrash Australia by 93 runs in the 3rd one-day international.
A brilliant century from the England no. 3 James Taylor, and a half-century by the skipper Morgan himself helped the hosts reach the 300 run mark.
When Australia came out to chase those runs in Manchester, they found it difficult to deal with the slowness of the wicket and kept on losing wickets at regular intervals.
Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid took advantage of the situation and picked up five of the Australia wickets. Rashid has been a crucial player for England in the shorter formats of the game. Morgan will want him to come to the fore again in the fourth ODI.
"Before I came into this one-day series I had a clear mindset of what my role is in the team and what I'm looking to do. It's a bit of a risk but my aim is to create chances, sometimes I might get hit for a few, sometimes I might get wickets but that's the risk I take," Rashid said ahead of the fourth one-dayer.
"It's different set up from when I first came in, a whole different environment, my mindset is a lot clearer, the coaches, the captain, the mindset of the team is a lot clearer.
For Australia, thje middle-order needs to fire in the remaining two matches. Glenn Maxwell, George Bailey, Mitchell Marsh and Matthew Wade will have to step up to the plate if Australia are to win the series.
Surprisingly, England have not won an ODI series against Australia since 2012, nor have they managed to win two consecutive ODIs since then. England captain Morgan will also be wary of their ICC rankings. If they lose the last two ODIs against Australia, they will fall below Bangladesh in the ICC ODI rankings.
But if they win the last two games and with it the the series, they will inch closer to Sri Lanka in the rankings table.
Morgan will also want Alex Hales to pick up form at the top of the order. He came into this ODI series with a string of outstanding scores for Nottinghamshire (85, 9, 81, 58, 189 and 62). But he has failed to take in that momentum into this ODI series.
In the last four ODIs that he has played, he has scored only 52 runs for his national side. He struggled to middle the ball in the third ODI as well. Morgan will want him to give England a brisk start at the top alongside Jason Roy.
Chris Woakes has been ruled out of the rest of the series due to a thigh injury for England. David Willey is likely to take his place in the playing XI. Australia might rest Mitchell Starc, struggling with an ankle problem, and give John Hastings a shot in the 4th ODI.
The wicket at Headingley has always been a good one to bat on and runs should come easily. The expected cloud cover will interest the pacers, though.
Expected Lineups:
England: Jason Roy, Alex Hales, James Taylor, Eoin Morgan (capt), Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid, David Willey, Liam Plunkett, Steven Finn.
Australia: Aaron Finch, Joe Burns, Steven Smith (capt), George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade (wk), Ashton Agar, John Hastings, James Pattinson, Pat Cummins.
Where to Watch Live
The 4th ODI between England and Australia is scheduled for a 10:30 am local time (3 pm IST, 5:30 am EST and 7:30 pm Australian Time) start and the live coverage in India will be available in Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1. The match can be streamed live on StarSports.com and Hotstar.com.
Viewers in the UK can tune into Sky Sports 2 and Sky Sports HD 2. The live streaming option will be available on SkyGo.
Viewers in Australia can watch the 4th ODI between England and Australia on theNine Network and stream the same on Cricket.com.au.
Cricket fans in US can switch to ESPN 3 and live stream the match on WatchEspn.
