Scotland vs Australia Only ODI at Edinburgh

Edinburgh: Australia' first game since the 2-1 Ashes defeat in London last Sunday and is a warm-up for when they resume their battles with England in a Twenty20 international at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Australia's squad has changed significantly over the past four days, with Ricky Ponting heading home with the Test specialists, and Brad Haddin having surgery on his broken left ring finger. A batch of fresh faces has arrived to join Michael Clarke, the stand-in captain, as the group starts planning for the bigger tournaments ahead.

This will be the first contest between the teams outside a World Cup and is a big occasion for Scotland. They missed out on qualifying for the 2011 global event so have few opportunities to face the game's major teams. Last Saturday they lost to Ireland in Aberdeen, scoring only 109, so facing the world champions, who are currently ranked No.3, will be even more difficult.

Australia last turned out in a one-day affair against Pakistan in May, but a more relevant gauge is their form in the Twenty20 World Cup. They were knocked out in the first round, just like Scotland.

Team news

Scotland: Only Navdeep Poonia is missing from the outfit picked to face Ireland last Saturday, which means Kyle Coetzer is still away with Durham. Marc Petrie, the 19-year-old, keeps the keeping gloves due to Simon Smith's shoulder problem.

Squad (likely): Gavin Hamilton (capt), Fraser Watts, Qasim Sheikh, Ryan Watson, Neil McCallum, Richie Berrington, Marc Petrie (wk), Majid Haq, Ross Lyons, Gordon Drummond.

Australia: The Twenty20 specialists David Warner, Adam Voges, David Hussey and Dirk Nannes are with the squad, which currently contains 15 players, and the XI is unlikely to be finalised until shortly before the toss. Tim Paine, the new wicketkeeper, is a certainty to make his debut.

Squad (likely): Shane Watson, David Warner, Michael Clarke (capt), David Hussey, James Hopes, Cameron White, Tim Paine (wk), Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Hauritz, Nathan Bracken.

Pitch and conditions:
The field was soft on Thursday after overnight rain, but the pitch will have a few of the Australians thinking back to The Oval. It's very dry, reasonably hard, has no signs of green and the local bowlers expect it to have good carry.

However, the BBC predicts heavy rain and showers for Friday while the Met Office forecasts "a mixture of bright or sunny intervals and showers turning heavy at times". Prepare for anything, along with a shivery maximum of 14°C.

Stats and trivia

• Unless Australia arrange a friendly with Iceland on their next trip to Europe, this is as far north as they will get a game - Edinburgh's latitude is 55 degrees north. Dunedin, in New Zealand, is the most southerly venue they visit at 42 degrees south.
• The teams have played twice at World Cups: in the 1999 event Australia won by six wickets during a go-slow success, and they backed up with a 203-run victory in 2007 after scoring 334 for 6 in St Kitts.
• Gavin Hamilton, Fraser Watts, Ryan Watson and Majid Haq played against Australia in that 2007 game, which also included Nathan Bracken, Shane Watson and Michael Clarke.
• Michael Clarke has led Australia in 11 ODIs, winning eight of them.
• Edinburgh averages 51mm of rain in August. Some of it is expected on Friday

Match facts
Friday, August 28, 2009
Start time 10.45 (09.45 GMT)

Head 2 Head