Smith 'not worried' by absence of pace trio against England
Stand-in captain Steve Smith says he is "not worried" about the absence of Australia's three key fast bowlers for their Champions Trophy opener against England on Saturday.Skipper Pat Cummins and fellow seamer Josh Hazlewood are out of the tournament with injuries while left-armer Mitchell Starc pulled out of the squad for personal reasons.It will be the first time none of the the famous pace trio have featured at a major white-ball tournament for 14 years."It's a little bit different," Smith said. "I've played for 10-plus years with those guys."We're missing a few of our gun fast bowlers but we're not worried about that, we're thinking about what we've got here and the opportunity those guys have."Cummins, Hazlewood and Starc have 525 one-day international wickets between them. They were all part of Australia's 2015 and 2023 World Cup wins and have featured in the past five Ashes series.In their place the attack will likely be led by 30-year-old seamer Nathan Ellis, the only other pace bowler selected in the squad before the withdrawals.Left-arm quick Spencer Johnson, seamer Sean Abbott and left-armer Ben Dwarshuis have since been added.England captain Jos Buttler said he is still expecting a "really tough challenge"."The three guys have been a real pillar of success for Australia for a long period of time so naturally they'll be a miss for their team," he said."But there's some top players to step into their shoes as well who have performed very well over time."
England, who have confirmed their XI with Jamie Smith batting at number three, come into the contest on the back of four ODI series in a row but Australia are also out of form in the format. They were thrashed in their two preparation matches by Sri Lanka, who did not even qualify for the Champions Trophy."We both didn't play as well as we would have liked over the past couple of weeks but that doesn't mean a great deal coming into tomorrow," Smith, 35, said."It's a fresh start, a new tournament and two good teams going at it."England and Australia are joined in Group B by Afghanistan and South Africa. The Proteas crushed Afghanistan in the group's opening match on Friday.Only the top two teams in each group progress to the semi-finals, leaving Saturday's beaten team with little room for manoeuvre.Australia won the 2023 World Cup despite losing their first two matches and Smith said this format means they must be "switched on" from the start."We got off to a slow start and then started to find a groove and get into our work," he said."You can't really do that in the Champions Trophy. You have to be switched on first game, try to get that first win under the belt straightaway and go from there. I think it's a really good format."
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