Sports Betting Articles
New-Look Australia Look For Familiar Success
By Philip Oliver
Australia's One Day team has lost many notable players through retirement in recent times and the gaps left by Glenn McGrath and Adam Gilchrist in particular will be hard to fill. Matthew Hayden is absent from this series through injury, so there is a further opportunity for fresh talent to emerge.
Much of this talent has been recently developed in the Indian Premier League. Shaun Marsh, James Hopes and Shane Watson - a late call-up to the squad - all impressed in the IPL and it is doubtful whether these players, previously on the fringes of the national team, would have the important roles they look set to have if it wasn't for their displays in India.
They join the nucleus of a squad that eased to world cup glory in this part of the world last year and the new Aussie team looks as exciting as many of its predecessors. They will have a point to prove after losing the Commonwealth Bank series against India and start as firm favourites as they do for all their matches.
Australia would normally be strongly fancied to win a contest with West Indies, but the men from the Caribbean are steadily improving and have been a good match for Australia throughout the recent Test series. They also won last week's rain-affected Twenty20 match in thrilling style and are able to express themselves in limited overs games more than has been possible in recent years.
The hosts also have a better recent record against Australia than anyone. They have won five of the last 11 matches played between the two over the last five years, but they lost the only meeting in the last 18 months, at the world cup, by a huge margin. West Indies have some exciting new talent of their own, with Xavier Marshall, who dazzled in that Twenty20 victory, a real prospect for runs at the top of the order.
50 over cricket might currently be overshadowed by the Twenty20 format, but the Champions Trophy is still the second most revered tournament after the world cup and takes place in Pakistan later this year. These two teams contested the last final in 2006 and will see this series as the start of their preparations.
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