Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket blog of the first One-Day International (ODI) between New Zealand and Australia, at the Eden Park in Auckland on Wednesday. The Chappell-Hadlee Trophy 2015-16 will consist three ODIs, with the second and third to be played on February 6 and 8 at Wellington and Hamilton respectively. New Zealand and Australia did not play any limited-overs matches the last time they played late last year, a tour in which the Kiwis played as many as four tour matches. However, Australia, who are coming off six limited-overs matches against India have not got any tour match ahead of this first ODI. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD AND UPDATES: New Zealand vs Australia 2015-16, 1st ODI at Auckland
TOSS UPDATE: Steven Smith has won the toss and has elected to bowl first
Teams:
New Zealand XI: Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum(c), Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls, Grant Elliott, Corey Anderson, Luke Ronchi(w), Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Matt Henry, Trent Boult
Australia XI: David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Steve Smith, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Wade, James Faulkner, John Hastings, Kane Richardson, Josh Hazlewood
Australia will be back to full strength, with David Warner, Josh Hazlewood and Steven Smith returning to their respective roles. The touring party are without their star bowler Mitchell Starc, who is months away from return to cricket. They will also be missing their star opening batsman Aaron Finch, who suffered a hamstring injury in the Twenty20 International (T20I) series against India.
Ridiculously, Australia did not include Usman Khawaja in the first ODI, who has been in red-hot form. Australia have taken Shaun Marsh ahead of Khawaja, a move that has surprised McCullum as well. ALSO READ: Steven Smith defends Australia’s decision to select Shaun Marsh ahead of Usman Khawaja, for 1st ODI vs New Zealand
New Zealand, on the other side, will try and make sure Brendon McCullum gets a fitting farewell. McCullum will be retiring from international cricket after the end of this series, which will also include a three-match Test series for the Trans-Tasman Trophy 2015-16. ALSO READ: New Zealand, Australia poles apart in reading Eden Park pitch in Auckland for 1st ODI
Ironically, both New Zealand and Australia will be heading into the ICC World T20 2016 on the back of the three-Test series, at a time when more than half of the teams in the world are busy playing as much T20 cricket as possible.
Squads:
New Zealand squad: Brendon McCullum (c), Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Henry Nicholls, Corey Anderson, Grant Elliott, Mitchell Santner, Luke Ronchi (wk), Trent Boult, Doug Bracewell, Matt Henry, Adam Milne, Colin Munro, Ish Sodhi, Tom Latham (cover).
Australia XI: David Warner, Shaun Marsh, Steve Smith, George Bailey, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Marsh, Matthew Wade, James Faulkner, John Hastings, Kane Richardson, Josh Hazlewood