Australia Men will return in action for the first time since March when they take on West Indies on 10 July, in the first T20I of the five-match series, at the Darren Sammy National Cricket Stadium, St Lucia. This will be the first T20I between these sides since 2014.
Australia will miss the services of David Warner, Steven Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Pat Cummins, Daniel Sams, Kane Richardson and Jhye Richardson in this tour. However, that will open the door to Dan Christian, who will make his comeback in the international circuit after four years.
Kieron Pollard’s West Indies are coming from a tightly-fought 2-3 defeat to South Africa. They will be looking to get back to winning ways in the Australia series. Dwayne Bravo, who recently took his career-best 4-19, will be in focus.
All five matches will be played in St Lucia in the series. Australia have played at this venue four times and have won all four. Their most famous victory here came in the 2010 T20 World Cup semi-final, against Pakistan.
Anything in the 170-180 can be a challenging total on this pitch, where spinners will play a massive role for each side. Australia will heavily rely on Adam Zampa and Ashton Agar, while West Indies may include both Fabian Allen and Akeal Hosein.
We all remember the ugly spat between Pollard and Mitchell Starc in IPL 2014. The duo will once again go head to head in this series. It is likely to be the most interesting battle in this contest.
Head to Head
West Indies have played Australia 11 times. They have won six and lost five. They have met four times in West Indies. Both have got two wins each.
Probable XIs
Australia: Aaron Finch (c), Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Marsh, Josh Philippe, Ben McDermott, Moises Henriques, Daniel Christian, Ashton Agar, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa
West Indies: Lendl Simmons, Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Kieron Pollard (c), Andre Russell, Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Akeal Hosein, Obed McCoy
Prediction
Australia to win the contest and take the lead.