Australia's fast-bowling all-rounder Sean Abbott said he wasn't surprised over a very experienced Josh Hazlewood doing a great job as a skipper in his ODI captaincy debut when the hosts defeated England by 72 runs at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Saturday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Hazlewood became Australia's 28th ODI captain after newly-appointed full-time skipper Pat Cummins was rested for the second game of the three-match series against England. Hazlewood also became just the fourth bowler to captain Australia in ODIs.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With James Vince and Sam Billings leading England's chase with a 122-run stand, Hazlewood brought himself back in the attack and trapped the former lbw in the 28th over, triggering a batting collapse of the visitors and bowling them out for 208.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Once I knew I wasn't playing, I was trying to wind him up. He tried to play it down... he was very nervous. He had a very good day and I think he took it all in his stride very well."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Josh has got a great cricket brain, he's very experienced so I'm not surprised that he did such a good job as captain," Abbott said on SEN Radio's 1170 Breakfast show.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Abbott, who has played alongside Hazlewood on several occasions in domestic cricket for New South Wales, revealed that Australia are taking a collaborative approach to leadership in ODI cricket to get the desired results on-field.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"You'll have guys like Smith or Alex Carey behind the stumps with the gloves on that get a certain feeling about a field placement. We're in a good space at the moment where people can make those changes and not need the captain to say it's ok."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"We had the new ODI captain in Pat Cummins running drinks for me the other night and running messages. It's a team effort."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
With an unassailable 2-0 lead, Australia will be aiming for a series sweep when they take the field for the third and final ODI against England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Tuesday.<\/p>\r\n\r\n