England have announced their playing XI for the first T20I of the three-match series against Australia with Jacob Bethell, Jamie Overton and Jordan Cox set to make their T20I debuts. Phil Salt will make his captaincy debut for England as Jos Buttler is nursing his right calf injury.
Bethell is a batting allrounder. The 20-year-old has scored 736 runs in 45 T20s at a strike rate of 137.57 with the help of four half-centuries and also bagged seven wickets. Jordan Cox is much more experienced compared to Bethell, having played 123 T20s.
Cox has aggregated 2598 runs at a strike rate of 138.85, including 12 half-centuries. The wicketkeeper-batter has also played 53 first-class matches and accumulated 3194 runs including eight centuries and 12 half-centuries.
The third debutant Jamie Overton has played 143 T20s so far and claimed 96 wickets at an economy rate of 9.04. Overton has already made his international debut for England. He played a Test match for the Three Lions against New Zealand in June 2022.
Notably, this is England's first white-ball series under their newly appointed head coach Brendon McCullum. McCullum has already given tremendous results with the red-ball side and is looking forward to emulating that success.
England's Playing XI for the first T20I against Australia:
Phil Salt, Will Jacks, Jordan Cox, Liam Livingstone, Jacob Bethell, Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid, Saqib Mahmood, Reece Topley
England ODI squad: Jos Buttler (c), Jofra Archer, Gus Atkinson, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Ben Duckett, Josh Hull, Will Jacks, Matthew Potts, Adil Rashid, Phil Salt, Jamie Smith, Reece Topley, John Turner
