AUS vs ENG Live: England face injury-hit Australia in Lahore

The English captain Jos Buttler anticipates a formidable contest against Australia in their Champions Trophy Group B fixture in Lahore on Saturday, despite the absence of key Australian pacers.

Australia's participation in the tournament has been significantly impacted after Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood were sidelined due to ankle and hip injuries respectively.

Their situation worsened when Mitchell Starc withdrew for personal reasons, whilst Mitchell Marsh's back injury and Marcus Stoinis's unexpected retirement from ODIs further complicated matters.

Steve Smith will lead the side with a relatively new pace attack, though Buttler remains cautious about their traditional rivals.

"They have been a real pillar of success for Australia for a long period of time, so naturally there'll be a miss for their team," Buttler told a news conference on Friday.

"But they've got some top players to step into those shoes as well and Australia always over time have performed very well in ICC tournaments.

"We expect a really tough challenge."

Australia have been supreme competitors in ICC tournaments having won six ODI World Cup trophies, one T20 prize, two Champions Trophy titles and a World Test Championship.

"The pressure of big tournaments gets the best out of us as a team," said Smith.

"But over the last 10 or so years we haven't performed as we would have liked in the Champions Trophy. Our message to the group is essentially it's a quarter-final to begin proceedings and hopefully that can bring the best out of our players."

Both Australia and England come into the tournament at the back of series defeats to Sri Lanka and India.

Smith's team suffered a 2-0 ODI whitewash in Sri Lanka while England went down 3-0 in India.

"We both didn't play as well as we would have liked in the last couple of weeks but that doesn't mean a great deal coming into tomorrow," said Smith.

"I think it's a fresh start, it's a new tournament. two good teams going at it, so I am looking forward to it tomorrow, should be a good game."

England have announced their XI on Thursday with Jamie Smith to bat at number three position.

Smith said he will announce his team at the toss at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, but hinted he will come out to bat with one wicket down.

Australia skipper Steve Smith on Friday said the team's up-and-coming talent is raring to go in the absence of top stars as they prepare to begin their Champions Trophy campaign against England.

The current ODI world champions suffered huge blows ahead of the 50-over tournament when they lost fast bowlers Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood to ankle and hip injuries respectively and Mitchell Starc, who is out due to personal reasons.

Mitchell Marsh is also absent with an injury and with Marcus Stoinis announcing his shock retirement from the one-day format last month, Australia will look depleted when they face Ashes rivals England in Lahore on Saturday.

The second line of pace bowlers including Sean Abbott, Ben Dwarshuis, Spencer Johnson and Nathan Ellis have just over 40 ODIs between them.

"It is clear we are missing our gun fast bowlers, but we are not worried about that," Smith told reporters.

"We are thinking about what we have got here and the opportunity those guys have. It's going to be great to see them placed under pressure against some quality oppositions and it is going to be an exciting time for us."

He added: "I think they have been placed under pressure, under many different scenarios, in T20 cricket or different T20 franchises around the world."

Australia:

Steve Smith (capt), Sean Abbott, Alex Carey, Ben Dwarshuis, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Aaron Hardie, Travis Head, Josh Inglis, Spencer Johnson, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Tanveer Sangha, Matthew Short, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserve: Cooper Connolly.

England XI:

Phil Salt, Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith (wk), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (capt), Liam Livingstone, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.

England's response includes a pace trio of Jofra Archer, Mark Wood, and Brydon Carse, alongside Adil Rashid's spin bowling.

"They're pretty much all-out fast bowling with Adil (Rashid, the leg-spinner) being their banker – he's high quality, and doesn't go underrated in this room – but there's so much excitement around Wood, Jofra, Carse and (Gus) Atkinson," head told 'cricket.com.au'.

"We're going to have to make sure we start well against them. As an opening batter, how I can counteract that and how I play against that is a great challenge."

England's squad includes emerging wicketkeeper-batter Jamie Smith, likely to bat at number three.

Given the batting-friendly conditions, Ben Duckett, who impressed against India, aims to provide a strong foundation, while Joe Root serves as the batting linchpin.

Root, England's second-highest run-scorer behind Duckett in the India series, looks to deliver significant performances.

England, pursuing their first Champions Trophy title, are focusing on the present rather than their recent Indian tour struggles.

"Regardless of what happened in India, we've got that belief that we've got the talent, we've got the world-class players, the match-winners in the squad to win the tournament," Rashid said.

Australia's bowling unit faces significant challenges without the services of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, and Mitchell Starc, who are all unavailable for the tournament.

Additionally, they lack all-rounders Mitchell Marsh (back injury), Cameron Green (injury) and Marcus Stoinis, who unexpectedly retired from this format after being initially selected for the tournament.

Under these circumstances, it remains uncertain whether Australia, led by temporary captain Steve Smith, can achieve similar success in this condensed version of the World Cup.

With Marsh's absence, Smith is expected to occupy the number three position and shoulder significant batting responsibilities for the team that claimed this trophy in both 2006 and 2009.

Travis Head's performance will be closely monitored, following his impressive scores of 101 and 89 at this venue during their 2022 series.

Head's outstanding unbeaten 154 at Trent Bridge against England in last year's series makes him a key player to watch.

Hello and welcome to the Live coverage of ICC Champions Trophy match between Australia and England at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.

An underperforming England and a depleted Australia aim to commence their Champions Trophy journey victoriously in what appears to be a balanced Group B fixture between the traditional rivals on Saturday.

Both sides have shown poor form in ODIs recently, with reigning champions Australia suffering defeats to Sri Lanka (0-2) and Pakistan (1-2) in their previous series.

England, now under Brendon McCullum's guidance across all formats, haven't secured an ODI series victory since their disappointing 2023 World Cup showing.

The team led by Jos Buttler recently endured a 0-3 loss to India, displaying subpar performance throughout the series.

Both nations are keen to establish their presence in this prestigious ICC event.

Australia prevailed over their rivals during their last encounter in England, securing a 3-2 victory in a five-match series in September last year.

The situation has since evolved, with the world champions missing five crucial players from their initial selection.