Nottingham: Riding on confidence after their emphatic win over Afghanistan, Australia will face an uphill task against the buoyant West Indies when the two teams meet in their World Cup fixture at Trent Bridge Thursday.
Both the teams were at their menacing best in their opening World Cup encounters and literally thrashed their opponents.
Aaron Finch-led Australia had registered a convincing seven-wicket win over Afghanistan. The bowlers, especially the pacers, were on song as they restricted Afghan Tigers to 207.
While chasing, Finch and David Warner showed signs of being in great form as both scored half centuries and rang alarming bells for the opposition teams.
On the other hand, Windies had demolished the Pakistani batting line-up with a barrage of short-pitch deliveries and ultimately bowled them out for mere 105 in their opening encounter in the ongoing World Cup. Oshane Thomas had finished with 4-27, while captain Jason Holder and Andre Russell shared five wickets between them before Windies clinched a seven-wicket win over Pakistan.
Australia are wary off the fact that Windies line-up boast of having some of the biggest hitters in world cricket at the moment and it would really require some effort from the Aussie pacers to control the likes of Chris Gayle, Russell and Carlos Brathwaite.
Head coach Justin Langer has already said that Australia would need to adjust their mindset to take on the West Indies quicks and other fast bowlers at the tournament in England and Wales.
“We have to adapt to West Indies no doubt, who have got a number of good, fast bowlers. South Africa will be same. England will be the same. Have to adapt our game plan and adapt pretty quickly,” Langer said Tuesday. “Obviously a very dangerous team the way they bat and aggressive bowling, but they’ve got weaknesses as well and we’re playing pretty good cricket.”
He also said that Australia, in all likelihood, will go in with the same XI that featured against Afghanistan.
Squads
Australia: Aaron Finch (captain), Usman Khawaja, David Warner, Steve Smith, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wicketkeeper), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Kane Richardson, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Nathan Lyon, Adam Zampa
West Indies: Jason Holder (captain), Andre Russell, Ashley Nurse, Carlos Brathwaite, Chris Gayle, Darren Bravo, Evin Lewis, Fabian Allen, Kemar Roach, Nicholas Pooran (wicketkeeper), Oshane Thomas, Shai Hope, Shannon Gabriel, Sheldon Cottrell, Shimron Hetmyer
IANS