England vs Australia: Young Players Who'll Shine in Natwest Series Clash

With the Ashes urn safely in Alastair Cook’s back pocket, attention now is on the shorter format of the game with the second one-day international between England and Australia at Old Trafford.

It represents a big chance for some of the young pretenders from the England and Australia ranks to make an impression ahead of this winter’s return Ashes series.

Obviously it is difficult to do that in a washed out game—which is what happened in the first one-day international at Headingley—but Old Trafford should give us a chance to see some action. After all, it never rains in Manchester, right?

For England, one young player who has already had enough incident to last a whole career is Durham all-rounder Chris Stokes.

Earlier this year, Stokes was expelled from the Lions tour of Australia for persistent late-night drinking. But to his credit, the 21-year-old has got his head down and put in some impressive performances in Durham’s fruitful county campaign.

Stokes, despite not taking a wicket, impressed in England’s win over Ireland on Tuesday, and many are tipping him to finally realize his potential in these contests with Australia. He is certainly keen to make the most of his second chance, as he explains in the Daily Mail:

"

I am chuffed to bits to be back in the one-day team and hopefully they have looked past that little hiccup in the winter. I don’t know whether being called up now was a second chance but I put it on myself to work hard and show them that I wanted to get back to international cricket. It’s up to me to prove I have learnt from my mistakes.

"

A successful one-day series could see Stokes force his way into contention for the Ashes this summer, where the youngster will be hoping for a much more enjoyable time than during his last jaunt down under.

For the opposition, a player who also already impressed this summer is all-rounder James Faulkner. 

He was drafted into the test side for the final Ashes Test at the Oval, but is renowned as a specialist in the shorter form of the game.

Following the fifth Test, Australia coach Darren Lehmann spoke of how pleased he was with Faulkner’s performance in such a high profile encounter, as per Fox Sports:

"

I was really impressed with his debut. He got in their face and had a crack so I was really pleased with that. He got four wickets in the first innings, scored 20-odd and played the game we wanted him to play at the back end of our innings.

"

And it was obvious why. Faulkner's bowling was especially impressive. He varied his line, length and pace to great effect as England looked to chase down Australia’s second-innings total.

His mixture of yorkers, short balls and slower deliveries had the England batsmen flummoxed at times, as he was arguably Australia’s stand-out bowler in the match.

Faulkner's batting also showed signs of his one-day pedigree, scoring 23 and 21 runs in his first and second innings respectively—all at a rate of more than one run per ball.

English and Australian supporters alike should be excited with his 23-year-old Tasmanian plying his trade in his preferred format.