Underlining the increasingly congested cricket calendar, newly-minted T20 World Cup champions England have had to snap out of revelry and attempt to somehow focus on a seemingly inconsequential three-match ODI series against Australia.

Around 72 hours after partying into the wee hours of Monday, a slew of England's title-winning heroes will be back on the field for the series opener on Thursday at the Adelaide Oval.

On paper, the series feels rather trivial and lacking context as it is not part of the World Cup Super League. Crowd numbers for the games in Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne are expected to reflect the lack of mainstream interest. Only 18,000 fans attended Australia's must-win T20 World Cup match against Afghanistan in Adelaide earlier in the month - a figure you feel Cricket Australia would gladly take for the first ODI.

It might be something of an afterthought - and you could certainly understand if England are feeling sluggish - but the series still holds some importance. It effectively kick-starts preparations for the 50-over World Cup in India, which is less than 12 months away, and provides an opportunity for the last two World Cup champions to experiment and tinker with their line-ups.

Australia had ODI series victories against Zimbabwe and New Zealand in Queensland in August-September, while England's form was patchy during their home summer.

Australia WWWLW (Last five completed matches, most recent first)
England WLLWL

Australia (probable): 1 Travis Head, 2 David Warner, 3 Steve Smith, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Cameron Green, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Josh Hazlewood, 11 Adam Zampa

England (probable): 1 Jason Roy, 2 James Vince, 3 Phil Salt, 4 Sam Billings 5 Jos Buttler (capt & wk), 6 Moeen Ali, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Adil Rashid, 10 Chris Jordan, 11 Olly Stone

Sunny conditions are forecast in Adelaide with a maximum temperature of 23 degrees, which is set to aid the normally batting-friendly pitch at a ground marked by short square boundaries. Bowlers generally aim for a fuller length to force batters to hit to the longer straight boundaries, while turn is usually evident.