Australia will take on West Indies in the fifth ODI of the triangular series at St. Kitts, Basseterre on Monday. Having secured two wins over South Africa and one over West Indies, the World Champions have moved to the top of the points table.
Australia just need one more win to make it to the final of the triangular series. As usual, they have been rampant in almost all the departments, apart from one game against South Africa in which they lost by 47 runs.
But Australia have taken a blow just ahead of the fifth ODI against West Indies. David Warner has been ruled out of the remainder of the series because of a fractured finger.
"It's obviously disappointing to be sidelined given the form I've been in and given the important stage the tri-series is at, but it's always important to look at the positives. This downtime, however long or short it is, will give me the chance to freshen up and spend quality time with my family after an intense period of action," Warner was quoted as saying by Cricinfo.
Meanwhile, West Indies have won one and lost another so far and they still have two more matches in hand, including the one against Australia.
West Indies need to work on their batting. Skipper Jason Holder has asked for more from his batsmen in the remaining matches so that the bowlers can breathe a sigh of relief.
"We didn't bat well in the last game in Guyana. We won the first game probably in the 48th over chasing 180. I think it's obvious that we need to put some more runs on the board. This pitch here will be a lot better than Guyana in terms of strokeplay," Holder told Cricinfo.
"We saw the game yesterday and it looked like a pretty easy pace and pretty easy going for the batsmen. It's important for the top four to bat as big as possible, give us a good solid foundation for our middle order to come in and capitalise."
However, even if Warner is not there in the playing XI, it will not be an easy task for the West Indians.
Probable XI:
Australia: Aaron Finch, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (C), Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Marsh, Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon.
West Indies: Johnson Charles, Andre Fletcher, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Kieron Pollard, Denesh Ramdin (wk), Jason Holder (C), Carlos Brathwaite, Sunil Narine, Jerome Taylor, Sulieman Benn.
Where to watch live:
The fifth ODI of the tri-series Australia vs West Indies is scheduled for a 1 p.m. local time (5 p.m. GMT, 6 p.m. BST and 10:30 p.m. IST) start. Ten 3 will broadcast the game live in India and the subcontinents. The live streaming option will be available on Tensports.com.
Sky Sports 3 and Sky Sports HD 3 will telecast Australia vs West Indies 5th ODI live in UK and Ireland. Watch Sky Sports will stream the same.
Willow TV and Willow TV Online will show the game Australia vs West Indies 5th ODI live in the US.
Foxsports 4 Australia will telecast the game live with the live streaming option on Foxtel Play.
Fans in South Africa can switch to CSN and SuperSport 2 to watch Australia vs West Indies 5th ODI live.
Cricket Australia will also stream the game live.
