22-year-old Jake Fraser-McGurk was the talk of the town in May following an explosive debut in the Indian Premier League (IPL) season, where he struck at a mind-boggling 234.04, but the youngster has been axed from Australia’s XI for the first T20I against England following a horror run in T20s.

Fraser-McGurk made his T20I debut in the three-match series against Scotland but could only manage a total of 16 runs in three innings. He registered two ducks in the three T20Is against Scotland and became the only top-six batter in Australia’s history not to trouble the scorers on debut, creating an unwanted record. 

The 16-run outing in Scotland came on the back of a horror 2024 Major League Cricket (MLC) season in which he averaged 11.70 in seven innings. 

For the first T20I, the Aussies have opted to replace Fraser-McGurk with the more experienced Matthew Short, who himself has had somewhat of a mixed year in T20s in 2024. Short top-scored in the 2023/24 Big Bash League (BBL) season with 541 runs and had a solid MLC campaign – 170 runs @ 34.00 and 180.00 – but averaged just 11.00 in The Hundred 2024, representing the Northern Superchargers.

Australia (Playing XI): Travis Head, Matthew Short, Mitchell Marsh(c), Josh Inglis(wk), Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, Cameron Green, Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Phil Salt, meanwhile, has just become the 11th cricketer to officially captain England in a Men’s T20I. He won the toss in Southampton and sent Australia into bat. 

England (Playing XI): Philip Salt(wk/c), Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Reece Topley

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