West Indies will host Australia in the second ODI of the tri-series at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Sunday. Having won the first ODI against South Africa, Jason Holder & Co will now take on the big boys of Australia.
Australia will look to make a winning start to the tri-series. They will be boosted by the return of Mitchell Starc, who was sidelined for more than six months because of his ankle injury.
Not only Starc, but also a number of Australian players who pulled out of IPL 2016, have travelled to the Caribbeans for this series. Skipper Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell and Mitchell Marsh had pulled out of the cash-rich league because their respective injuries. But it seems they are fit and raring to go against West Indies in the second ODI of the series.
On the other hand, West Indies announced themselves after handing South Africa a 11-run defeat. Sunil Narine and Kieron Pollard were the stars of the show. While Narine achieved his career-best figures after picking up six wickets, Pollard did the rest with the bat to get his side over the line.
It was just few days later that Pollard and Narine shut up West Indies cricketers like Darren Sammy, Chris Gayle and Dwayne Bravo, who had taken a dig a these two for getting selected for the tri-series.
Australia do not take any sides lightly, and it is quite obvious from the kind of players they have opted for in this tri-series.
The Aussies are likely to go with two spinners in the form of Adam Zampa, who has been a revelation in the recent times and Nathan Lyon for Sunday's encounter against West Indies at the same venue, where Narine picked up six wickets the other day against South Africa.
"I think for this wicket we've got a good mix; guys who can penetrate the wicket quite hard and hit good areas, a couple of spinners and guys who can bowl a lot of cutters, which are going to work well on that wicket. So I think we've got the balance right for the first game," Smith was quoted as saying by the official website of Cricket Australia.
Smith also threw light on how they plan to tackle the spin of Narine and take control of the game against the upbeat hosts.
"I think it's about each individual batter having a plan against him. He's a quality bowler with a different set of skills than we're used to seeing, (but) a lot of guys have seen him now and know what he brings to the table." Smith said.
"It's about making sure we're able to rotate the strike and if we get a bad ball to put it away. In Australia, where the bounce is consistent and the ball doesn't spin a great deal, you can hit through the line and take the game on a little bit more. It's about making sure we're smart with our skills."
However, West Indies will look to stick to their winning combination when they take the field against Australia on Sunday.
Probable XI:
West Indies: Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Jason Holder (C), Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn.
Australia: Aaron Finch, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (C), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon.
Where to watch live:
The second ODI of the tri-series West Indies vs Australia is scheduled for a 1 p.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT, 6 p.m. BST and 10:30 p.m. IST) start. Ten 3 will broadcast the game live in India and the subcontinents. The live streaming option will be available on Tensports.com.
Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports HD 3 will telecast West Indies vs Australia 2nd ODI live in UK and Ireland. Watch Sky Sports will stream the same.
Willow TV and Willow TV Online will show the game West Indies vs Australia 2nd ODI live in the US.
Foxsports 4 Australia will telecast the game live with the live streaming option on Foxtel Play.
Cricket Australia will also stream the game live.