Confident England take on the World Champions Australia in the series opener

The skippers of two teams the Royal London Cup ahead of first ODI

World Champions Australia will take on the revamped England team in the first one-day international match of the 5-match series at The Rose Bowl in Southampton. The visitors will look for avenge of the Ashes loss, and on the other hand, England would want to continue their newly found form in the shorter format after the World Cup disaster.

The Kangaroos will be without opener Aaron Finch, who smashed 135 against England in the World Cup, but the 25-year-old Joe Burns has proven his potential of filling the void successfully, with solid performances for the A side.

Australian captain Steven Smith said the home team look good especially after winning the series against New Zealand.

“They've played some very good one-day cricket of late. The series against New Zealand they played really well, they took the game on," Smith was quoted saying by Cricket Australia. “Their batters are coming out and playing their shots, which I hope works for us ... if they come out and start playing their shots early, hopefully, we can get a few wickets and really exploit the middle order.”

Speaking ahead of the series opener, England skipper Eoin Morgan said there is tough fight for places in the playing XI apart from the 14-member squad selected.

"We've an exciting group of young cricketers, even outside the 14 we selected for the ODI series. We probably have another four or five guys outside that pushing for places and earmarked for the future," said Morgan. "It's a very exciting time for us. It's important we recognise that this is just the start of something and important we continue playing in the fashion that we do to try and improve as we go along.”

Predicted team:

Australia XI: Joe Burns, David Warner, Steven Smith (Captain), George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Shane Watson, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade (Wicket-keeper), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins.

England XI: Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Moeen Ali, Eoin Morgan (Captain), Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (Wicket-keeper), Sam Billings, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood, Steven Finn.