Australia have handed a debut to young fast bowler Mahli Beardman, who will get an opportunity to play in front of his home crowd in Perth.
England captain Harry Brook said his team would have also preferred to bowl first but was ready to bat after losing the toss.
“We’re not disappointed. We’d have had a bowl if we’d have won the toss, but look, you’ve got to do both aspects of the game at some point, so we’ll take it on,” Brook said.
Marsh backs Australia to start well
Marsh said the pitch looked good and expected it to remain the same throughout the match.
“We’re going to bowl first. Yeah, it looks good, read out the conditions. Historically I don’t think this wicket will change at all. And we like to chase, hopefully we get off to a good start with the ball and apply some pressure early,” he said.
The Australian skipper was excited about Beardman’s debut and the opportunity for the young fast bowler to play at home.
“It’s going to be exciting for him. It’s probably no better place in the world as a young West Australian to debut. It’s a fantastic stadium and I’m hopeful we’ll get a really good crowd today,” Marsh said.
Talking about the importance of winning the opening match, he said: “Look, well it’s the start of the summer for us, for all of our teams. It’s an exciting time. Three-match series. That first game is always really important. We’ve learned a lot of lessons over the last few months in terms of how we want to play and we’ve got a reasonably young and inexperienced side, but lots of energy and looking forward to it.”
Brook talks about England’s preparations
Brook said England had a good preparation ahead of the series, including training at the WACA and playing a practice match.
“Yeah, we’ve had a great week and a half. We had the luxury of training over the WACA and having that practice game over there. So we’ve had a really good week’s training and it’s something that we don’t really get much in the white ball, so it’s been nice to be together,” he said.
England have decided to go with four fast bowlers and Liam Dawson, with Adil Rashid missing out.
“No, we are going with with four quicks and Liam Dawson,” Brook said.
Playing XIs
Australia: Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh (captain), Cooper Connolly, Matt Renshaw, Josh Inglis (wicketkeeper), Cameron Green, Jack Edwards, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Spencer Johnson, Mahli Beardman.
England: Ben Duckett, Tom Banton, Joe Root, Harry Brook (captain), Jordan Cox (wicketkeeper), Sam Curran, Will Jacks, Liam Dawson, Jamie Overton, Gus Atkinson, Jofra Archer.