Bond doubtful for first one-dayer

Brad Hodge gears up for his ODI debut © Getty Images

A hamstring injury has made Shane Bond a doubtful starter for the first one-day international of the Chappell-Hadlee series, at Auckland on Saturday. Lindsay Crocker, the team manager, indicated that the final team will be named much closer to the match. "Bond, who was on light training following a stomach bug yesterday, strained his right hamstring during training. Shane is now in doubt for tomorrow and Chris Martin is on standby and will replace Shane in the squad of 13, should he be unable to play.

"Because of the doubt over Shane we are not in a position to determine the final 12 at this time. At 12.30pm [on Saturday] we will be in a position to determine whether Shane will be able to play and the playing 12 will be finalised closer to the toss."

Meanwhile, Brad Hodge, the Victoria batsman, will make his ODI debut in the game. Mick Lewis, the Victoria fast bowler, has been left out of the playing XI while Cameron White has been named the Supersub. Simon Katich, who had been dropped from the Test squad, makes his return and will open the batting with Adam Gilchrist.

Hodge, a middle-order batsman, averages an impressive 37.27 in domestic one-dayers for Victoria and has 5106 runs from 157 games. He impressed on his Test debut, making 60 in the second Test against West Indies at Hobart.

Australia
1 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 2 Simon Katich, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Brad Hodge, 6 Michael Hussey, 7 Andrew Symonds, 8 Brett Lee, 9 Brad Hogg, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Stuart Clark. Supersub: Cameron White