 After the one-sided nature of the ODIs, the fans from around the world, not the
least from Australia, will hope that the first T20I between Australia and
West Indies will be much more keenly fought. The Aussies had won the ODI series
4-0 with one match being abandoned.
There is a new-look Australian side for the T20I with the biggest change being
the absence of Ricky Ponting. Ponting had, earlier last year, announced
his retirement from this format of the game, which in turn, passed the mantle
of the captaincy on to Michael Clarke for this format. This also ensured that
Cameron White, who has led his Victorian Bushrangers to all the six finals of
the KFC Big Bash T20 tournament was anointed the vice-captain of the team.
Click Here to Watch Australia vs West Indies Live To the existing set of youngsters, the Aussie selectors have added a couple
of new names. Daniel Christian, for one, is a South Australia, who seemed
to have caught the eye of many of the fans in the Big Bash and has been given
the opportunity to play for Australia, as has Travis Birt. Apart from the pair,
Steven Smith, who was earlier handed over the ODI debut, will play in his second
T20I as well.
However, the one player, who would not only be looking at making his way into
the playing eleven, but also continuing to create an impression is Shaun Tait. Tait's speeds of more than 160 kmph in the one-off T20I against Pakistan
means that he will be the one bowler to watch out for in the match against West
Indies as well. With the hard-hitting West Indies batsmen already been
kept quiet in the ODIs, it will be interesting to see how well they cope up
with the pace of Tait.
The West Indies do not have too many different personnel from those who featured
in the ODIs, but one thing is certain. Kemar Roach will be played, unlike
the fact that he was dropped from the last three ODIs to lend solidity to the
batting down the order. The other issue that has kept cropping up for the West
Indian side is that the top-order has failed to deliver on more occasions that
not, with Chris Gayle not finding a partner at the top.
This is the one reason, one would have thought that someone like an Adrian
Barath would have made a lot of sense at the top of the order. Unfortunately,
he is not around, the West Indian side will have to come up with someone else
to go after the bowling along with Chris Gayle, who just won the T20I
innings of 2009 award from a very famous website. Incidentally, that innings
had come against the same opposition, and so it would be interesting to see
whether he can repeat the same magic.
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