Captains Jason Holder of West Indies and Steve Smith of Australia with the Frank Worrell Trophy at the Blundstone Arena in Tasmania on the eve of the first Test Match.
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Fast bowling legend Sir Curtly Ambrose is seeking to fire-up an underdog West Indies who face top-ranked Australia in the first of three Test matches on Thursday.
Walsh, the fifth all-time leading Test wicket-taker with 519 and second only to Glenn McGrath as most prolific paceman, said he was surprised by Australia’s wisdom of opting for those who bowl at speeds of above 140kph (87 mph).
Pattinson, 25, played the last of his 13 Tests against South Africa in March 2014 with his career stalled by chronic back and hamstring issues.
The West Indies have been given little chance of success but they have an advantage in experience over their Australian opponents and are coming off a 1-1 draw with England earlier in the year.
In a grim foreboding of what lies ahead for the maligned Caribbean tourists in the three-Test series, Australia cruised effortlessly to 438 for three at stumps on the opening day with the West Australian pair taking the game away from the Windies.
“Australia is strong, but when we go to places like Sri Lanka, India and the West Indies that’s when you start to see those numbers drop off”, he added.
According to Cricket Australia, Marsh and Voges’ fourth-wicket union that will resume tomorrow unbroken on 317 was the largest Australia has managed over the West Indies since 1969, when Bill Lawry and Doug Walters posted 336 in Sydney.
“The other thing we have to think about is the real star players that were around the game five or six years ago have all retired at once”, he said. “We will go out there, do the best we can and give them a good run”. Even though the Australian attack is missing Mitch Starc (temporarily) and Mitch Johnson (permanently), the already huge gap between the teams could be exposed as a chasm by the time they bat. “There’s some very good fast bowlers in our group”.
Taylor and Roach have both proved they can trouble Australians with pace, admittedly Taylor much more recently than Roach, but there was no evidence of that on the opening morning.
“We have to come out and execute our skills as well as we can”, Warner told Sky Sports.
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But he was far from the form that returned 6-47 against Australia in June in Jamaica.
