England win toss, elect to bat against Australia

SYDNEY, Feb 2 (Reuters) England won the toss and elected to bat first in their tri-series one-day international against Australia at the Sydney Cricket Ground today.

Australia made three changes to the side that beat New Zealand by eight runs in Perth on Sunday after captain Ricky Ponting was rested because of a hip complaint and replaced by Brad Hodge.

The undefeated Australians also made two voluntary changes to the pace attack with Stuart Clark replacing Brett Lee and Shaun Tait making his one-day international debut for Mitchell Johnson.

England made two changes to the side that lost to New Zealand by 58 runs on Tuesday with Essex batsman Ravi Bopara making his debut for Paul Collingwood and Lancashire seamer Sajid Mahmood replacing Chris Tremlett.

Teams: Australia - Adam Gilchrist (captain), Matthew Hayden, Brad Hodge, Michael Clarke, Andrew Symonds, Mike Hussey, Cameron White, Stuart Clark, Nathan Bracken, Shaun Tait, Glenn McGrath, Brett Lee (12th man) England: Mal Loye, Ed Joyce, Ian Bell, Andrew Strauss, Bopara, Andrew Flintoff (captain), Jamie Dalrymple, Paul Nixon, Liam Plunkett, Sajid Mahmood, Monty Panesar, Jon Lewis (12th man).

REUTERS PM MIR RAI0903