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Australia set to bat first in deciding ODI against Pakistan

Headshot of Aaron Kirby
Aaron KirbyThe West Australian
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Aaron Hardie will bat at three.
Camera IconAaron Hardie will bat at three. Credit: Mark Brake/Getty Images

West Australian Aaron Hardie has been promoted up the order as Australia gets set to bat first against Pakistan in the deciding ODI in Perth.

Australia have made a fleet of changes from the loss in Adelaide with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne all rested ahead of the Test summer.

Marcus Stoinis returns to the team while exciting West Australian youngster Cooper Connolly will play as the second spinner and bat low down the order.

Lance Morris and Spencer Johnson will likely take the new ball while Australia have stuck with under-performing openers Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk.

Josh Inglis will remain at four in his international captaincy debut.

Inglis said after the toss he would have chosen to bowl as well given the green tinge on the Perth deck and perfect weather.

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“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind few days,” he said.

“We’d probably have bowled well too. We got five changes: Connolly, Stoinis, Morris, Abbott and Johnson in.”

Pakistan have stuck with the same team as they look for their first ODI series victory in Australia since 2002.

TEAMS

Australia

Matthew Short

Jake Fraser-McGurk

Aaron Hardie

Josh Inglis † (c)

Cooper Connolly

Marcus Stoinis

Glenn Maxwell

Sean Abbott

Adam Zampa

Spencer Johnson

Lance Morris

Pakistan

Saim Ayub

Abdullah Shafique

Babar Azam

Mohammad Rizwan † (c)

Kamran Ghulam

Salman Agha

Irfan Khan

Shaheen Shah Afridi

Naseem Shah

Haris Rauf

Mohammad Hasnain

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