The international summer of cricket gets underway from 2.30pm AEDT on Monday with Australia and Pakistan facing off at the MCG in the first ODI of the three match series.

It is the first time the two sides have met in the format since last year’s World Cup and both teams are fresh off defeating England, albeit in different formats.

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Pakistan quelled Bazball to give new red ball coach Jason Gillespie his first Test series victory as an international coach, but have not played an ODI in almost a year.

Australia’s last outing was when they won the decider of their five-match ODI series against England in Bristol in September.

Pat Cummins sat out the tour of the UK but returns to lead the side that has a balance of youth and experience.

With Travis Head and Mitch Marsh on paternity leave, Matt Short and Jake Fraser-McGurk have been given the licence to thrill at the top of the order as they try to cement themselves in the team ahead of next year’s Champions Trophy in Pakistan.

In life after David Warner, Australia is yet to settle on a regular opening partner for Head as injury, illness and selection have caused regular shuffling of the batting order.

A combination of Head, Marsh or Short was used on each occasion in England, while last summer Fraser-McGurk and Inglis were also used against the new ball.

Short appears to be ahead of the younger upstart in the selectors’ pecking order at this stage with the 28-year-old Victorian given three chances at the top during the England series.

The dashing right-hander fired in Australia’s series clinching victory in their most recent ODI with a swashbuckling 58 off 30 balls, and he also crunched 80 off 58 balls a week and a half ago in a one-day match against a New South Wales bowling attack that included Cummins.

Fraser-McGurk was in the squad for the UK tour but has not featured in the 50-over format since he blasted 41 off 18 balls in his second match against the West Indies at the SCG in February.

The 22-year-old has had a strong diet of T20 cricket this year with him playing T2oIs as well as franchise cricket in the Indian Premier League and America’s Major League Cricket, but he has been short of runs.

His half-century against England in Cardiff is the only time he has made 20 or more in his last ten innings at professional level, and he has also lacked cricket at the elite level to start the Australian summer as he was not selected for South Australia’s opening two Sheffield Shield matches.

Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne will be eager for some runs to boost their confidence levels ahead of the Test series against India after neither managed to score the big runs they craved in their recent Sheffield Shield appearances.

Cummins and Mitchell Starc are also tuning up for the Border Gavaskar Trophy, while the likes of Aaron Hardie and Sean Abbott will be determined to impress with their opportunities.

As for Pakistan, Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah all return after sensationally being dropped after they lost the first Test to England.

Wicket keeper batter Mohammad Rizwan will lead the side following a white-ball captaincy merry-go-round in recent times between Azam and Afridi.

Fast bowler Haris Rauf has been named to return to the ground where he has shone in four different Big Bash seasons for the Melbourne Stars.

Australia’s XI: Matt Short, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Steve Smith, Josh Inglis (wk), Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Aaron Hardie, Pat Cummins (c), Sean Abbott, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa

Pakistan’s XI: Abdullah Shafique, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam, Mohammad Rizwan (c/wk), Kamran Ghulam, Salman Ali Agha, Muhammad Irfan Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain

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