Nottingham: Riding on confidence after their emphatic win over Afghanistan, Australia will face an uphill task against the buoyant West Indies when the two teams meet in their World Cup fixture at Trent Bridge on Thursday.
Both the teams were at their menacing best in their opening World Cup encounters and literally thrashed their opponents.
Aaron Finch-led Australia had registered a convincing seven-wicket win over Afghanistan. The bowlers, especially the pacers, were on song as they restricted Afghan Tigers to 207.
While chasing, Finch and David Warner showed signs of being in great form as both scored half centuries and rang alarming bells for the opposition teams.
On the other hand, Windies had demolished the Pakistani batting line-up with a barrage of short-pitch deliveries and ultimately bowled them out for mere 105 in their opening encounter in the ongoing World Cup. Oshane Thomas had finished with 4-27, while captain Jason Holder and Andre Russell shared five wickets between them before Windies clinched a seven-wicket win over Pakistan.
Australia are wary off the fact that Windies line-up boast of having some of the biggest hitters in world cricket at the moment and it would really require some effort from the Aussie pacers to control the likes of Chris Gayle, Russell and Carlos Brathwaite.
Head coach Justin Langer has already said that Australia would need to adjust their mindset to take on the West Indies quicks and other fast bowlers at the tournament in England and Wales.
"We have to adapt to West Indies no doubt, who have got a number of good, fast bowlers. South Africa will be same. England will be the same. Have to adapt our game plan and adapt pretty quickly," Langer said on Tuesday.
"Obviously a very dangerous team the way they bat and aggressive bowling, but they've got weaknesses as well and we're playing pretty good cricket."
He also said that Australia, in all likelihood, will go in with the same XI that featured against Afghanistan.
WC head-to-head
Matches....................9
WI wins....................5
Aus win....................4
Pitch and weather
The pitch is expected to be flat. Expect a high scoring encounter. Weather is expected to be bright and sunny right through the match.
Probable XI
Australia: Aaron Finch (C), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith, Glenn Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Alex Carey(WK), Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Coulter-Nile, Adam Zampa.
West Indies: Chris Gayle, Shai Hope(WK), Darren Bravo, Nicloas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer, Andre Russell, Jason Holder(C), Carlos Brathwaithe, Ashley Nurse, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas.
