Rampant hosts eye winning start at Gabba

Brisbane: Momentum will be with Australia, the home side, when it locks horns with Pakistan in the first of five One-Day Internationals in Brisbane on Friday.
 
Coming off a 3-0 series sweep of Pakistan in the preceding Test series, Australia, the World champion, looks a formidable unit, having whitewashed New Zealand in the Chappell-Hadlee series before Pakistan came calling.
 
Chris Lynn and Billy Stanlake, the Queenslanders, will make their ODI debuts in the game, Steven Smith confirmed on Thursday.
 
Lynn, who has played five Twenty20 internationals, has lit up Australia's Big Bash competition this year, hitting 26 sixes in five games, including one 121-metre blast that sailed out of the Gabba, the venue for Friday's match.

The only point of worry for Australia in the ODIs against New Zealand was the form of Aaron Finch. Travis Head will partner David Warner at the top of the batting order in Finch's absence, leaving no place for Usman Khawaja in the XI.

Adam Zampa has also been left out, and Glenn Maxwell, back in the side after 13 months, will be the lead spinner.

The towering Stanlake will join Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins in the pace attack, with Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh and James Faulkner filling the all-rounder roles for the first of five one-dayers.

In its last ODI assignment, Pakistan brushed West Indies aside 3-0 in UAE last year. But facing a No. 9-ranked side at home is a different prospect from challenging the top-ranked Australia in its backyard.
 
Pakistan will draw confidence from its performance in the warm-up fixture against Cricket Australia XI earlier in the week, where it stamped its authority with an emphatic 196-run win, albeit against a side with no big names.
 
Babar Azam, who top-scored in the match for Pakistan with 98, will be crucial to Pakistan's chances. In the series against West Indies he scored a century in each of the three games, and will look to bring some of that form into this series as well.
 
In the bowling department, Hasan Ali, the right-arm seamer, displayed promise with 3 for 18 in the warm-up game.

Teams

Australia (Announced XI): David Warner, Travis Head, Steven Smith (capt), Chris Lynn, Mitchell Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Matthew Wade (wk), James Faulkner, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Billy Stanlake.

Pakistan (from): Azhar Ali (capt), Asad Shafiq, Babar Azam, Hasan Ali, Imad Wasim, Mohammad Amir, Junaid Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Rahat Ali, Sharjeel Khan, Umar Akmal, Wahab Riaz.

Stats and trivia

• Australia have dominated recent encounters between these sides, winning 16 of their past 20 ODIs against Pakistan
• In 2013, Australia were rolled for 74 by Nuwan Kulasekara and the Sri Lankans in a Brisbane ODI.
• Pakistan would need to win the series in order to move ahead of Bangladesh and into seventh position on the ODI rankings.

Match facts
January 13, 2017 (d/n)
Start time 1320 local (0320 GMT)