West Indies vs Australia LIVE: First Twenty20 in Jamaica
Latest posts
9.34am
Australia win the toss and bowl
Mitch Marsh has won the toss and Australia will bowl
Marsh says he wants to get a look at the pitch first and then chase a target under the new lights at Sabina Park.
Jake Fraser-McGurk is back in Aussie colours
After making his mark with a string of pulverising displays at the Indian Premier League in 2024, Jake Fraser-McGurk has found more famine than feast in his recent tournaments.
He's been in and out of the Australian side and initially missed selection for this tour. However and injury to left-arm paceman Spencer Johnson opened up a spot in the squad, and overnight it emerged that first choice opener Matt Short had also headed home with a side strain.
That means Fraser-McGurk will open with Marsh in Jamaica, while debutant Mitch Owen takes a role in the middle order.
Travis Head, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood have been rested from the series.
Australia XI: Mitch Marsh (capt), Jake Fraser-McGurk, Josh Inglis, Cameron Green, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Cooper Connolly, Ben Dwarshuis, Sean Abbott, Nathan Ellis, Adam Zampa.
9.28am
Big decisions coming for world cricket
Overnight, the International Cricket Council Annual conference wrapped up in Singapore, and there were plenty of major moves in terms of the future of the game.
A men's Twenty20 Champions League will be relaunched as soon as September next year, after the tournament was backed by key member countries at the International Cricket Council's annual conference in Singapore.
Test cricket's future and a possible split into two divisions may also be decided by the end of the year, after the ICC formalised a working group to reshape the game's calendar from 2027 onwards, according to two sources with knowledge of confidential discussions.
There is now a distinct possibility that the number of Test playing countries may be capped, on the basis that only a few currently make money from the game's oldest format and that many nations do not have the resources to support the systems required for developing competitive Test teams.
Cricket Australia chief executive Todd Greenberg and Richard Gould, CEO of the England and Wales Cricket Board, will be among the eight members of the calendar working group, alongside the ICC's new chief executive Sanjog Gupta.
It will be expected to present interim findings and recommendations to the ICC board, chaired by india's Jay Shah, before the end of this year.
9.28am
Welcome to the T20 series
Hello and welcome to our coverage of the first T20 between Australia and the West Indies in Jamaica.
This is the first game of a five-match series, part of Australia's run to the T20 World Cup to be played in India next year.
Australia have never beaten West Indies in a T20 series in the Caribbean, and were thrashed 4-1 when they last contested one in these parts of the world in 2021.
That tour, which was followed by another beating in Bangladesh, was a catalyst for then coach Justin Langer to adjust his methods and allow the players to control more of their own space. A surprise victory at the 2021 T20 World Cup soon followed in the UAE.
Mitchell Marsh was a key part of that story as a top three batter. He is now the T20 captain.
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