With eyes on World Cup, Australia clash with South Africa

BLOEMFONTEIN: Australia have set winning the five-match One-day International series in South Africa as their primary task as they use the games to hone their preparations for next month’s World Cup in India, said captain Mitchell Marsh on Wednesday.

Australia take on their hosts in the first ODI in Bloemfontein on Thursday where the wicket is expected to be flat like those in India but with the players having to deal with cold temperatures.

Australia have already selected their side for the opening game of the series with Marsh dropping down the top order to No. 3, behind Travis Head and David Warner, having opened with Head in Australia’s last ODI which was a 21-run win over India in Chennai in March.

“There’ll be potentially a few moving parts with our squad throughout these five games, I’m guessing it’s the same with South Africa with a heavy schedule, building to the World Cup. We’ll have certain guys in different areas, but I’ll start at No. 3 tomorrow,” he told a press conference.

Marsh captained Australia to a convincing 3-0 whitewash of their hosts in last week’s T20 series but is expecting a much tougher challenge in the 50-over version.

“It was obviously a really pleasing win for us as a team, even as a pretty young team to play the way we did. South Africa welcome back a lot of experienced players now, so it’ll be a different challenge for us and they play very well at home,” Marsh said.

Australia’s preparations for the World Cup have been hit by injuries to Test captain Pat Cummins and Steve Smith, who both picked up wrist injuries during the Ashes series, ruling them out of the ODI series in South Africa. Mitchell Starc has also been sidelined by a groin problem.

On the other hand, South Africa are looking to balance giving returning players a chance to find their form with trying to gain some team momentum as they begin the series against Australia.

South African captain Temba Bavuma is seeking to use the series to clean out a few cobwebs as well as building the teams confidence for the Oct 5-Nov 19 World Cup.

“It’s a bit of a balance because there are guys who haven’t been playing for a while and opportunity will be given to them, more for batters to get them into the right mental and physical space,” Bavuma said.

“And for the bowlers it will be about getting time in their legs out there in the middle. I think what is more important is the synergy and the relationship between the bowlers out in the field, to get that going again.”

South Africa have included spinner Keshav Maharaj and seamer Sisanda Magala in their World Cup squad, which was announced on Tuesday, after the pair overcame fitness concerns.

“Our World Cup preparations started from the beginning of this year, where we saw a couple of new faces coming into the team, guys who we envisaged playing certain roles within the team. Some guys have stayed, some guys, unfortunately, are not here,” added Bavuma.

“It [Australia] is our last series before the World Cup. So I guess there’s a lot more of a significance behind it but I think in terms of everything that we’ve done our prep started a long time ago and for us it’s just a matter of continuing and challenging ourselves.”