England ODI MVP Preview

After a surprising defeat to Scotland in England’s recent one-off One-Day International, the series against Australia represents the perfect opportunity for England to showcase their number one position in the ODI Rankings..

England’s brightest moment in Edinburgh came from the bat of Jonny Bairstow as the Yorkshireman hit his his third consecutive century in ODI cricket – an accolade no other English batsman has ever achieved.

Bairstow’s ODI form has been nothing short of spectacular with the batsman finishing second in the Overall Winter MVP ODI, behind Chris Woakes who will unfortunately be injured for the beginning of the ODI Series against Australia.

Jos Buttler will be another player looking to replicate his ODI Winter form following productive series against tomorrow’s opponents and New Zealand where he finished 3^rd in the Winter ODI Rankings behind Bairstow and Woakes.

This summer has already got off to an excellent start for Buttler who was recently reinstated to the Test side for the series against Pakistan. The hard-hitting batsman will be hoping to continue his bright start in the ODI series after impressing against Pakistan in red ball cricket.

Moeen Ali is the current highest England player in the Royal London One-Day Rankings after impressing in the group stages for Worcestershire.

Ali has featured in five of Worcestershire’s eight fixtures and sits 15^th in the Rankings with 87.20 MVP Points. The all-rounder helped his side qualify for the knockout stages with a match-winning knock against Warwickshire in the final group game and will be looking to take his early season county form into the International set-up.

David Willey currently holds the highest average points per match in the Royal London One-Day Cup after smashing his Yorkshire side through to the latter stages of the tournament.

In his three appearances, Willey has took 11 wickets at an average of 11.8 as well as scoring highest with the bat in two of his three games. 131 runs against rivals Lancashire before a final game 71 against Northants means the fiery Englishman scored a grand total of 202 runs at an average of 67.

Willey is joined by fellow Yorkshire teammates Liam Plunkett and white ball specialist Adil Rashid in the bowling department as well as Test captain Joe Root who continues to be an integral figure of his country’s batting line-up.

After captaining his side to the ODI number one spot, Eoin Morgan will be looking to set the bar high with his own individual performances. Morgan’s last outing in the Royal London One-Day Cup proved successful with the left-hander getting his first List A century of the 2018 campaign.

With runs and wickets aplenty in this ODI side, it certainly looks like a series to get the pulse raising.