Venue: Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, Saint Lucia
Date: Friday, July 11 – Friday, July 16
BetXChange Odds for a Series win:
BetXChange Odds to win the first match:
Form
This will be a whistlestop tour for the Aussies as they take their third overseas trip since the beginning of the pandemic. This time they will be touching down in the West Indies – and more specifically Saint Lucia – where they will play five T20Is in the space of seven days before moving on to Barbados for a trio of ODIs to round out the tour.
With the Twenty20 World Cup just around the corner, this should be an intriguing contest. Both countries are still looking to fully settle on their squads for the showpiece event, so while they will both certainly be looking for a series win it will also be important for fringe players to get some time and hopefully impress.
We last saw Australia in this format as they went down 3-2 to New Zealand in a series back in February and March. Much has changed since then with the Aussie squad and a number of key names are rested/absent here as a new-look squad takes aim at the Windies.
The West Indies have played a T20I series much more recently as they took on South Africa just last week. The series was 2-2 heading into the final match and the West Indies had to run down the 168/4 that their touring visitors put up. They were unable to reach that mark, however, finishing with a score of 143/9 and falling 25 runs short of their target. It will be interesting to see what changes – if any – the Windies make to their lineups here as they look to avoid back-to-back series defeats this month.
West Indies
The West Indies have named a squad loaded with superstars of the game in a bid to shake off the defeat of a week ago. We all know what Kieron Pollard, Jason Holder, and Chris Gayle can do, and the team will be looking to those players to provide the type of leadership and performances that they are capable of. Watch for Evin Lewis and Nicholas Pooran to continue to impress after their work against South Africa.
Australia
The best way to look at this Australia touring party is that it does contain a nice mix of experience and youth. That is partly because of the players missing, with the likes of Steve Smith, David Warner, and Pat Cummins all absent. They are joined out of the squad by the likes of Kane Richardson and Marcus Stoinis, two of a handful of players that decided not to travel. Aaron Finch captains the squad and he will lean on veterans like Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazelwood. Look for players like Mitchell Swepson and Riley Meredith to impress as potential bolters for the World Cup.
Best Bets
The first match will tell much about where this series will go but I actually like the West Indies to rebound and defend their home wicket given the number of players that the Aussies are missing. Take the Windies to win the series at 1.50 with BetXChange.
