After a Test series which was much more competitive than many expected it to be, Australia and West Indies swap the red ball for the white one as a three match ODI series gets underway in Melbourne on Friday.
Australia are the 50 over world champions and will be looking to showcase their best stuff in this format once again while West Indies missed out on the World Cup towards the back end of last year and have a decent amount to prove themselves.
Australia
I would imagine Australia will have been shocked by what happened in the second Test match in Brisbane last week and although they will be a much changed side here, there will be an element of wanting to put West Indies in their place. If they can do that then that will bode well heading into the T20s after this series which carry much more importance given how close the T20 World Cup is beginning to get now.
You would imagine that Australia are going to be stronger overall with the bat in this series. There seems to be more depth in their squad in that department with their first-choice bowling attack having been rested for these matches. They still have a bowling unit who have been impressing in the Big Bash recently at their disposal so they aren’t going to be cannon fodder but the batting does look stronger on paper than the bowling.
West Indies
Somewhat surprisingly given that their standing in the ODI game could barely be lower, West Indies have named a very light and inexperienced squad for this series, one where they are devoid of many of their big household names because they are playing in the two franchise tournaments which are going on around the world. That is going to make following up the ODI series win over England in December much harder to achieve.
Given how Australia look strong with the bat, the big test for West Indies in this series will be how they cope with the ball, but we must also think back to the T20 World Cup in this part of the world around 15 months ago and West Indies were regularly getting stuck trying to hit big shots and not really getting the scoreboard moving. That is something that is going to have to have improved in the intervening time else they are going to struggle on these big grounds again.
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Team News
It is all change for Australia in this series and they are looking at some of the Big Bash all-star XI to full their squad for this match. At some point in the series Jake Fraser-McGurk and Xavier Bartlett will be hoping for their ODI debuts.
West Indies have made wholesale changes as well and they also have players looking to feature at this level for the first time. Teddy Bishop and Tevin Imlach are the two debutants in the squad but the majority of it have fewer than 10 ODIs on their record.
Betting
I’m going to largely keep my powder dry for this opening match of the series while we get to grips with how the teams are going to line up and what the motivation is and everything else. I think on the face of it I am expecting Australia to dominate this series but they are not at full strength so I’m not really in a hurry to get involved in them at a short price. That will take me to the side markets for a bet on the opening game.
One thing we know about West Indies regardless of who bats for them is they are notoriously bat at playing mystery spin. Sometimes that doesn’t account for anything because an Australian seam attack would be so good but that isn’t the case here so I’ve got to think that Adam Zampa to be the leading Australia bowler in this match is a good thing. He has 12 wickets against West Indies in just seven ODIs against them and that is usually behind an elite seam attack. West Indies might be able to see off the new ball a little easier than they might otherwise be able to and Zampa and his mystery, on a huge ground where fielders will be in the game for him in the deep, can take advantage.
Tips
Back A.Zampa Top Australia Bowler for a 2/10 stake at 4.33 with Betfred
