England gave a debut to Barbados-born Chris Jordan, the 24-year-old Sussex bowling all-rounder after fast bowler Steven Finn was ruled out with a side strain while Luke Wright replaced Jonathan Trott, out with a back spasm, as they made two changes from the side that levelled the series at 1-1 with a three-wicket win in Cardiff on Saturday.
Clarke was passed fit despite concerns he'd suffered a recurrence of the longstanding back injury that sidelined him from the start of the tour.
But Australia still made two changes, with Phil Hughes replacing Shaun Marsh after the opener suffered a hamstring injury at Cardiff's Sophia Gardens and leg-spinner Fawad Ahmed coming in for seamer Nathan Coulter-Nile in what appeared to be a tactical switch.
It was at Southampton that Australia's Aaron Finch, playing in this match, scored a Twenty20 international record 156 in a 39-run win over England on August 29.
Victory in their final match of the tour would see Australia win their first series in Britain this trip after they lost the Ashes Tests 3-0 and shared the Twenty20s at 1-1.
Rain, which had prevented a result being achieved in two of the previous four matches in this series, delayed the toss and was forecast to interrupt the match as well.
Teams:
England: Michael Carberry, Kevin Pietersen, Luke Wright, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Ravi Bopara, Jos Buttler (wkt), Ben Stokes, Chris Jordan, James Tredwell, Boyd Rankin
Australia: Aaron Finch, Phil Hughes, Shane Watson, Michael Clarke (capt), George Bailey, Adam Voges, Matthew Wade (wkt), James Faulkner, Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay, Fawad Ahmed
Umpires: Aleem Dar (PAK), Rob Bailey (ENG)
TV umpire: Sundaram Ravi (IND)
Match referee: Jeff Crowe (NZL)
0 comments:
Post a Comment