Simmons puts faith in young Windies players against Australia

Australia on Tuesday turned to James Pattinson and Nathan Coulter-Nile to replenish their diminishing fast bowling ranks for next week’s opening Test against the West Indies.

Mitchell Starc who suffered a stress fracture during the first ever Day-Night Test said that he was surprised when he was sent in to bat at No. 9 in Adelaide.

West Indies arrive in Australia with few expecting them to have much success against the hosts, who are fresh off a 2-0 series victory over New Zealand.

James Pattinson looks certain to join Peter Siddle and Josh Hazlewood in the pace attack after being called into the squad for the final Test against New Zealand in the wake of Mitchell Johnson’s retirement.

“In an ideal world we would have liked Coulter-Nile to have played some more Sheffield Shield cricket”, Marsh said.

Eighty-five per cent of those surveyed supported the day-night concept as a “good idea”, according to Cricket Australia, while around four in five said they would support all Tests at the venue being played under floodlights.

“It’s about recovery now and healing and getting back on the horse and I guess working back on my bowling and hopefully being back sooner rather later”, he said before returning home after Australia’s three-wicket win over the Kiwis on Sunday.

Chairman of Australian selectors Rod Marsh is hoping that Peter Nevill can go on to break Adam Gilchrist’s record of 17 centuries – the most by a wicket-keeper for Australia.

“We saw weaknesses that we can exploit, it’s important to analyse every batsman and every bowler and come up with plans best suited for the conditions”, he told reporters in Brisbane.

It was the first time since 1993 that an Adelaide Test had not produced an individual century.

“It was fantastic for Shaun to get an opportunity, I think he has been batting extremely well. But we don’t get too many of them so we’ll go with our gut feeling on Coulter-Nile, we like him as a bowler”.

“What we have seen in last two Test matches, it’s closer to what we want to be as a team”. “We have to play aggressive cricket, we have to play smart cricket”, he added.

Siddle has a back niggle but is expected to play against the West Indies, while team management have been anxious about Hazlewood’s workloads since the first Test.