Australia will play Scotland in their one-off ODI on Friday to be played
at Edinburgh and the tourists will want to start off on the limited overs version
of the tour on a positive note. For Scotland, this will be a golden opportunity
to showcase their talent and get more exposure for their inexperienced set of
cricketers.
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Scotland Vs Australia
Australia will miss the services of Ricky Ponting, who will be flying
back home as a part of his workload management by Cricket Australia. This will
mean that Australia will be led by the vice-captain Michael Clarke, and
will have newer players coming into the fold. The other piece of bad news for
the Australians is the finger injury to Brad Haddin, which will mean
that he will not feature in the series and his place has been taken up by Tim
Paine, a 24-year old wicket-keeper from Tasmania. Also seen for the first time
on tour would be players like James Hopes and Nathan Bracken,
as will Cameron White be a part of the set-up.
Looking at the line-up, it is difficult to predict who the playing eleven will
be for the Aussies, but Clarke and Michael Hussey should be present in
the middle-order. Hussey had been in a rut, but managed to get out by getting
to a century at Oval. Amongst others, Shane Watson should open the innings
and in the absence of a regular opener, it could be Hopes who could give him
company at the top.
Amongst the bowlers, White may be the preferred spinning option, with Clarke
himself rolling his arm over, while Brett Lee should make a comeback
into the side. There may be a toss-up between Ben Hilfenhaus, Peter Siddle
and Mitchell Johnson for the last two bowling spots.
The Scottish will not expect a win from the game given their recent performances.
Their ICC World T20 campaign had ended in a disaster, with in-fighting between
the players, and then they had lost both their games rather convincingly. In
the three ODIs that they have played in against Canada and Ireland, they have
won only one, thanks to half centuries from Ryan Watson, Gavin Hamilton
and Neil McCallum.
The bowling will lie in the hands of Gordon Drummond, with Majid
Haq backing him up as an off-spinner in the side.
The ODI will be used by the Aussies as a curtain-raiser to the seven ODI series
against England, which will be followed by the Champions Trophy later
in September.
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