Australia will take on West Indies in the first game of the five match
ODI series at Melbourne. This is West Indies' second leg of the tour, with the
first one having seen Australia trounce the tourists in the Tests, 2-0. This time
around, the visitors will take on the Aussies in five ODIs and two T20Is. Australia
will definitely go into the game as favourites to win it. For one, they are currently
on a roll, having beaten the Pakistanis in nine successive games, including Tests,
ODIs and the T20Is. To add to that, it is not only their form against Pakistan,
but the general form in the ODI version that needs to be looked at; they have
won 20 out of their 24 ODIs and after losing the Ashes in July have yet to lose
any other series. Click for Live Score Card of Australia vs West IndiesApart from that, their batting has really clicked well,
and despite all the injury issues, their bowling has shown enough to prove that
they have one of the best bench strengths around. In this series as well, Peter
Siddle has been ruled out, but that hasn't meant that the Aussies are sweating
about his absence. Instead, very quickly, they have announced the replacement,
with the likes of Ryan Harris already making their presence felt. In
fact, Harris' three games against Pakistan defined the manner in which the Aussies
will play in the rest of the series against West Indies as well, as he scalped
13 wickets in the three games he played. Likewise, the return of Shane Watson
and Mitchell Johnson will obviously assist the Aussies with both, the bat
and the ball, and it looks like the Aussies have a really strong team. West
Indies, on the other hand, are a team without most of their senior pros. Instead,
Chris Gayle will be supported by the likes of his young guns in Dwayne Smith,
Kieron Pollard and Brendan Nash. Bravo's absence will hurt the West Indian
side as an all-rounder, but that will also be an opportunity for a couple of others
to develop through the rest of the series. The bowling could be a concern
for Australia. Already, Kemar Roach had broken Ricky Ponting elbow
in the test series, and he will be a threat for the Aussies. So will the likes
of Gavin Tonge and some of the other quick bowlers, who could use the conditions
at the MCG to their advantage. With Gayle predicting it to be a 4-1 result
for them, things could get very interesting in the middle.
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