Australia captain George Bailey has labelled England a “very dangerous” side ahead of the Tri-Series final.
With Australia aiming to maintain their unbeaten home summer with victory at the WACA Ground tomorrow, Bailey was unequivocal in his praise of an England side he thinks is well placed to do well at the World Cup.
“I think they are very, very dangerous because they don’t rely too heavily on any one player,” he said.
“Out of the top teams I think that is going to be a really key factor come the business end (of the World Cup), knowing that you can get to those three knockout games and not have to have one or two guys firing.
“They look pretty well balanced and they look like have really clear game plans, certainly from the couple of games we’ve watched.
“They have a good pace attack and they bat deep - they’ve got a really good mix at the moment.”
Bailey is holding the captaincy reins while Michael Clarke returns from a hamstring injury, which appears set to rule him out of Australia and England’s World Cup opener on February 14.
Clarke made a first return to action with Western Suburbs, in Sydney grade cricket, since suffering the injury in the first Test against India six weeks ago.
The 33-year-old required surgery but has made good progress in his recovery and was in a positive frame of mind after batting for three hours, and hitting 51, in his first game back.
"The fact I'm back on the field playing is a really positive sign," he said.
"But there's a long way to go before I can walk out on the field into an international.
"It's my first operation so I didn't really know what to expect. I'm certainly ahead of where the surgeon and the Australia medical staff thought I would be at the six-and-a-half-week stage.
"The experts seem to think I'm ahead of schedule, a good week, week and a half ahead of schedule, but it's one day at a time for me. As soon as I'm fit I'll be pushing the medical staff to let me get back on the park and play for Australia."
Clarke is playing in the match as a batsman only and plans to then take part in a Cricket Australia XI fixture against Bangladesh's World Cup squad as a batsman and in a limited fielding capacity on February 5.
That will determine his World Cup participation or otherwise.
"Like any injured player, you want to get on the park and play for your country," he said. "That's certainly why I'm still playing this great game.
"Being away from the team just makes you hungrier, makes you want to get back out there and play."