Why Sam Curran not playing today: Why is Adil Rashid not playing today’s 1st ODI between Australia and England in Adelaide?

Australia and England are up against each other in the 1st ODI of the 3-match ODI series at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide. Australia won the toss and opted to bowl first. England made some changes to their eleven where Sam Curran and Adil Rashid were not included in the playing 11.

Australia is missing the services of Glenn Maxwell who is out injured, whereas Josh Hazlewood is also not playing the match. Travis Head is set to open the innings with David Warner in this match, and they have again played an all-round squad with Ashton Agar batting at number 8.

England just won the T20 World Cup, and they are playing with a cautious approach in this match as they are playing with a new bowling combination in this match. Jason Roy is back for this match, whereas Dawid Malan is also back after recovering from his groin injury.

Why Sam Curran not playing today

English captain Jos Buttler confirmed at the toss that the team is playing without Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes in this match. There are no reported injury concerns for all of the mentioned names, and the aim is to rest the players after the T20 World Cup.

All four of the names played all the matches of the T20 World Cup, and being the bowling options, they certainly need an adequate amount of rest. Sam Curran won the Player of the Tournament award for his excellent performances in the tournament. He was even training before the match in Adelaide, so there are no injury concerns.

Not often do you see bowlers from both teams warming up on the same side wickets like Mitchell Starc & Sam Curran have been at the Adelaide Oval. And good on the Aussie support staff to help Curran out too while he’s at it #AusvEng pic.twitter.com/OS6Xi4PdOh

— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) November 17, 2022

Adil Rashid is the leading spinner of the side, and he was praised a lot for his performances in the T20 World Cup. Ali even called him the best leg-spinner in the World after the tournament. Moeen Ali also complained about the scheduling structure by the ICC as they won the World Cup just 4 days ago.

So, all and all, there are no injury concerns for any of Sam Curran or Adil Rashid, and they are rested to manage their workload as a lot of action is coming ahead of them.