West Indies open their campaign by batting

Toss West Indies chose to bat v Australia

West Indies will begin their World Twenty20 campaign by batting against Australia in Colombo, continuing their trend of avoiding chases in the shortest format. Only once in the past two years have West Indies batted second in a T20 and Darren Sammy decided it would be best not to mix things up now, allowing Chris Gayle the chance to set the tone by walking out early to face Australia's bowlers.

West Indies chose to leave out the batsmen Darren Bravo and Lendl Simmons, the allrounder Andre Russell and the legspinner Samuel Badree, while Australia made no changes to the side that beat Ireland. The veteran spinner Brad Hogg was passed fit after struggling with a virus over the past couple of days and the fast bowler Mitchell Starc was also included, having suffered from gastro on the day before the game.

Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Shane Watson, 3 Michael Hussey, 4 George Bailey (capt), 5 Cameron White, 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Matthew Wade (wk), 8 Daniel Christian, 9 Pat Cummins, 10 Mitchell Starc, 11 Brad Hogg/Xavier Doherty.

West Indies 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Dwayne Smith, 3 Johnson Charles, 4 Marlon Samuels, 5 Dwayne Bravo, 6 Kieron Pollard, 7 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 8 Darren Sammy (capt), 9 Fidel Edwards, 10 Ravi Rampaul, 11 Sunil Narine.

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