Oliver Peake breaks 19-year Australia ODI debut record

Oliver Peake made his ODI debut for Australia against Pakistan in Rawalpindi on Saturday and took down Ricky Ponting’s mark for the youngest-ever specialist batter to debut in the format for Australia. He did it at 19 years and 261 days, in the first match of a three-ODI series that now moves to Lahore for the next two games.

Rawalpindi XI

Peake was named in Australia’s playing XI for the first ODI, with Matthew Short, Alex Carey, Josh Inglis, Marnus Labuschagne, Cameron Green, Matt Renshaw, Nathan Ellis, Tanveer Sangha, Billy Stanlake and Matthew Kuhnemann also selected. Pakistan’s XI included Sahibzada Farhan, Maaz Sadaqat, Babar Azam, Ghazi Ghori, Salman Agha, Abdul Samad, Shadab Khan, Arafat Minhas, Shaheen Afridi, Haris Rauf and Abrar Ahmed.

Ponting’s old mark

Ponting had held the record since his ODI debut against South Africa in February 1995, when he was 20 years and 58 days old. Pat Cummins still owns the broader Australia mark for youngest ODI debutant, having started at 18 years and 164 days.

Pakistan’s conditions call

Pakistan won the toss and chose to field first. Shaheen Afridi said the pitch looks slow and low, added that the team looks to take advantage of the conditions, and noted that Pakistan were playing their 1,000th ODI.

The series arrives after Australia’s 2-1 home win over India in October last year and Pakistan’s 2-1 loss away to Bangladesh. For Peake, the debut places him in a senior ODI side that is already moving through a tight three-match assignment, with the opener in Rawalpindi setting the tone before the schedule shifts to Lahore.