One-day series a World Cup tune-up

Captain Ricky Ponting will miss the start of the series and coach Tim Nielsen the end so it's hard to say with a straight face the upcoming one-day internationals against England hold much importance.

But they do mark the start of a hectic two months for Australia, which will play 50-over cricket in three different continents as it starts eyeing off the 2011 World Cup.

Australia heads to South Africa to defend its ICC Champions Trophy crown later this month before tackling India on the subcontinent in a seven-game series in late October and early November.

After losing the Ashes, Australia faces more humiliation at the hands of the English should it under-perform in this series.

A 5-2 victory for the fourth-placed England will see it rise above Australia, the winner of the past three World Cups, in the one-day world rankings.

Both sides, in similar stages of transition, are expecting another even contest.

Australia's arsenal is missing two major batting weapons - Ponting and wicketkeeper Brad Haddin.

Ponting, resting back home, will miss the opening three matches but Haddin is out of the entire series and the Champions Trophy as he recovers from finger surgery.

With Haddin unavailable, Tim Paine will don the gloves and is also shaping as the most likely candidate to open the batting with Shane Watson.

Paine creamed a century opening for Australia A during the winter and made a handy contribution against Scotland last week batting lower down the order.

The reliable James Hopes, who has missed only two one-day international matches since the 2007 World Cup final, is another option.

As hard as it is to butter up for 50-over cricket after the Ashes there is much up for grabs, albeit not in terms of meaningful silverware no matter how much one wants to talk up the Champions Trophy.

We are now into the final two years of the four-year World Cup cycle.

Only four of its current squad - Michael Clarke, Nathan Bracken, Michael Hussey and Shane Watson - played in the farcical final in the Caribbean in 2007.

But history shows the side now will form a large portion of the 2011 squad.

From the XI in its first one-day game after the 2005 Ashes series, eight went on to be part of Australia's barnstorming success in 2007 when it emerged unbeaten from a second consecutive World Cup.

Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus, mainstays of the Test attack, now find themselves behind Brett Lee and Nathan Bracken in the one-day set-up.

With little chance of playing first-class cricket before the start of Test summer in Australia, the next two months will be vital for players on the fringe of the five-day side such as Lee and promising South Australia batsman Callum Ferguson.

The future of the 50-over game is also at stake.

The matches here are unlikely to win over an England public obsessed with football nor will it bump the AFL and NRL finals off the back pages in Australia.

England has scrapped its domestic 50-over competition from its calendar next summer, preferring instead to keep its 40-over-a-side and, of course, Twenty20 tournaments.

Not only does that bode ill for its World Cup preparations it does not paint a bright picture for the future of the game in an era when Twenty20 cricket continues to gain force.

Squads

Australia: Michael Clarke (c), Nathan Bracken, Callum Ferguson, Nathan Hauritz, Ben Hilfenhaus, James Hopes, Michael Hussey, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Tim Paine, Peter Siddle, Adam Voges, Shane Watson, Cameron White

England: Andrew Strauss (c), James Anderson, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Paul Collingwood, Eoin Morgan, Matt Prior, Adil Rashid, Owais Shah, Ryan Sidebottom, Graeme Swann, Luke Wright