Australia vs England, 2018: 4 Englishmen to watch out for

Having snapped their losing streak in Tests, England will welcome their ascend to their much more comfortable territory, One Day International cricket. In the aftermath of their disastrous World Cup campaign, England have transformed themselves into a remarkable ODI side, highlighted by some of the most destructive players in the world.

The aforementioned transformation is not just limited to an intimidating assortment of limited overs players. England play like a completely different side once the format changes, as we saw on their extended tour of the southern hemisphere last winter. After relinquishing the Ashes in an embarrassing 4-0 defeat, they came back strongly to make a decent Australian side look like a grade cricket side subsiding against the intermittent alpha. Similarly, they scored more in individual ODIs in New Zealand than they did collectively over two innings in their nightmarish outing in the Auckland test.

Even though every player in the squad brings something special to the table, we look at the select few that will be instrumental in England kickstarting their road to an eventual world domination.

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Joe Root

Regularly touted as England's best test bat, Root has often been ignored as a limited overs force, and that has started to get to him. Earlier this year, he entered himself into the IPL auction to place himself parallel with his star counterparts Virat Kohli, Steven Smith and Kane Williamson and also expressed his desire to represent England in all formats.

Doing well in ODIs for England consistently will be on Root's check-list and a strong start against Australia this summer could mean that he will finally be in the reckoning for England's premium white ball players. He was a vital member of the side that beat Australia at their home after 12 years, not just playing the role of anchor, but also took the pressure to score off the new batsmen allowing them to settle into their groove.

He often picks big scalps with his seemingly harmless off-spin, remember when he out-did both Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle in the 2016 World T20 final?

David Willey

A new ball bowler, with exceptional potential and skill, Willey fluctuates between being Jade Dernbach and being Jade Dernbach with the ball in hand. Few poor outings for the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL were followed by a one-day performance most players can only dream of having. First, he orchestrated a brutal 95-ball 131, laced with seven sixes, batting at three for Yorkshire against Lancashire and then backed it up with four crucial wickets in the second innings going at under six an over, in a match where 742 runs were scored.

Known for his exploits at the beginning of the innings, he will pose threats to Aaron Finch at the top of the Australian order as his susceptibility to outswing is well documented. However, Eoin Morgan should not limit Willey to his traditional role. In absence of Woakes, he can be sent to bat higher up in the order as well as used in the middle overs where he can counter the heaves of Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis with his canny cutters.

Jos Buttler

After a few years of struggling with the highs of blistering knocks and the lows of failing his team when needed the most, Buttler seems to have cracked the mystery to survive in the rare middle ground of consistency. His stint at the IPL, where he was pushed to the top of the order by mentor Shane Warne to allow him to express himself, turned around things for Buttler. He went on to play two important knocks for England in the recently concluded test series against Pakistan, and now seems to have found the right mindset to do well on a regular basis, a much different one from the older version, where he often looked to play shots out of a sheer obligation to his reputation.

As he has shown recently, especially in the Sydney ODI against Australia, Buttler now has better match awareness and channels his aggression accordingly. With a quick eye and even quicker hands, Buttler will pose a great challenge to the inexperienced bowling of Australia, especially Kane Richardson and Jhye Richardson, whose pace will be a double-edged sword against him.

Tom Curran

After he uprooted Adam Zampa's stumps to seal a thrilling win for England in their final ODI in Australia, Tom Curran talked about how he wanted to be the performer under the spotlights, the player captains and fans looked up to, to bail their team out of precarious situations. Since then, though, Curran has seen a serious dip in form. In the New Zealand series, he managed only 5 scalps, going at 6.69 and averaging over 50 with the ball.

Having lost his Test spot, coming from a hot and cold IPL season, Curran will have to start from scratch to make the relevant personnel at ECB believe in him again. He will look to capitalize on Australia's weakness in the death overs, where the likes of Maxwell and Stoinis are low on confidence after an off-show in the IPL and Tim Paine, who has not had much limited-overs experiences lately and might be a tad rusty.