CASTRIES, St Lucia, CMC – Australia arrived here late Monday for their eight-match white-ball series against West Indies, marking their first tour of the Caribbean in six years and their first bi-lateral limited overs series against the home side in nearly a decade.
The 18-man squad touched down at Hewanorra International Airport in the south of the island following a near 17-hour direct flight from Brisbane, and are now set to undergo quarantine at their hotel before beginning training later in the week. Australia will face West Indies in five Twenty20 Internationals from July 9-16 before travelling to Barbados for three One-Day Internationals from July 20-24.
Most of the squad participated in a planning camp on the Gold Coast last weekend and captain Aaron Finch said Australia were considering employing a three-pronged spin attack in the five-match series, especially with the Daren Sammy National Stadium having seen its fair share of cricket recently.
“If you look at the scores, it’s not a high-scoring ground, it’s generally a bit slower and spins a little bit,” said Finch.
“So we’ll look at those options once we get on the ground …” He added: “It’s also an opportunity for us to tinker around a little bit, and probably play a few different structures of team, that will give us an opportunity to gather some more information leading into the World Cup.”
Leg-spinners Adam Zampa and Mitchell Swepson, along with left-arm spinner Ashton Agar, are the slow bowlers in the squad.
Australia were hit with several late withdrawals, however, as the likes of Glenn Maxwell, Kane Richardson, David Warner, Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, Marcus Stoinis, Jhye Richardson and Daniel Sams all pulled out for varying reasons.
On their last T20 tour of the Caribbean, Australia won the first match St Lucia by eight wickets but lost the second in Barbados by 14 runs.
SQUAD – Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa.
Reserves: Nathan Ellils, Tanveer Sangha.