6 june, Nottingham- West Indies won the toss and elected to bowl against Australia in Thursday’s World Cup match at Trent Bridge.
Windies captain Jason Holder was boosted by the presence of Chris Gayle and Andre Russell in his starting line-up after his two key players were declared fit.
Russell was the orchestrator of the West Indies’ win over Pakistan with a spell of fierce pace bowling, while Gayle’s typically attacking half-century finished off the win.
Russell left the field shortly before the end of Pakistan’s innings with knee trouble, while Gayle was seen feeling his lower back and walked gingerly back to the pavilion upon his dismissal.
But both were able to face Australia, with Evin Lewis coming in for Darren Bravo in the only change.
“I think our fast bowlers can extract whatever is in the wicket early on. The nature of the wickets in England is that they don’t change very much,” Holder said.
“We just have to remain disciplined and remain aggressive like we were in our first game against Pakistan.”
Australia were unchanged from the team that beat minnows Afghanistan in their opener.
Captain Aaron Finch claimed he was happy to have been put into bat, saying: “I probably would have had a bat first anyway, it looks dry and hopefully it will spin later. We are starting to take the key moments in games.”
Teams:
Australia: Aaron Finch (capt) David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey (wkt), Nathan Coulter-Nile, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Shai Hope (wkt), Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder (capt), Andre Russell, Carlos Brathwaite, Ashley Nurse, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane ThomasUmpires: Ruchira Palliyaguruge (SRI) and Christopher Gaffaney (NZL)TV umpire: Marais Erasmus (RSA) Match referee: Jeff Crowe (RSS)
