After the culmination of the T20 series, England and Australia will now lock horns with each other in the 50-over format. The first ODI of the three-match series will be played on Friday at the Old Trafford Cricket Stadium in Manchester. England will be favourites in the series due to their home advantage and also due to the momentum they have built after winning the T20 series 2-1.

However, there is an interesting record that will be made when both the teams step out to the field. It will be the 1st time in almost 40 years that three back to back ODIs of a bilateral series will be played at the same venue between England-Australia. The last time it happened was in 1979-80 when all matches were played at Melbourne.

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There is another interesting statistic that wouldn’t please the Australian cricket team. Since the 2019 Cricket World Cup, Australia have been in poor form in ODIs. They have won only 2 ODI matches out 7 since the tournament and have the 3rd worst win percentage among the 14 teams that have played 5 or more matches since the World Cup.

Australia captain Aaron Finch is also wary of the threat provided by the world champions. He feels

“They’re a side that has firepower with ball and bat,” Finch said on Thursday.

“They have experience and they keep coming at you. There isn’t a part of the game where you can take your foot off the gas because there will be someone there to take the opportunity away from you.

“They had a great four years and capped it off with a great World Cup win because they were continually aggressive. They’ve had the wood on us in the recent past, but that’s fine. We aren’t looking in the past, we are looking forward.”