Australia v West Indies First Test: Nathan Coulter-Nile shock selection for

International Cricket Council chief executive David Richardson has lauded the “huge success” that was the inaugural day-night Test between Australia and New Zealand. Boland has picked up 12 wickets from the three matches he has played this Sheffield Shield season at an average of a mere 12.58.

“It was an exciting game, played in exemplary spirit, and in front of record crowds, a great advert for Test cricket”, he said.

“I’ve been training for a while now and been bowling for a long time”.

Australia’s middle order is the least experienced part of the test team, with Sean Marsh, Adam Voges, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh and wicketkeeper Peter Nevill all still trying to establish themselves in the side. Once Mitchell Starc went down everyone’s mind turned straight to Nathan Coulter-Nile.

Marsh spoke of the conundrum facing selectors over Hazlewood’s recent workload. “In an ideal world we would have liked Nathan Coulter-Nile to have played some more Sheffield Shield cricket”, Marsh said.

“It is always tough losing someone close to you and we got around Sids this morning”, captain Steve Smith said.

“What we have seen in last two Test matches, it’s closer to what we want to be as a team”. Marsh said at a media conference on Tuesday.

The Windies are third-last in the ICC’s Test rankings – ahead of only Bangladesh and Zimbabwe – and have stuck with the same squad which suffered a 2-0 series whitewash in Sri Lanka last month. You got to believe that you can get somebody out.

The Windies are a pale imitation of their glory days a quarter of a century ago and have been largely written off by the pundits as they embark on their tour of Australia.

Siddle survived and hit the required two, with injured paceman Mitchell Starc hobbling between the wickets to complete the win, which also sealed a 2-0 victory in the series.

Nathan Coulter-Nile, the right-arm pacer, is in line to make his Test debut after being named in Australia’s squad for the opening clash against the West Indies in Hobart next week.

“I never saw it as that”, Smith told reporters post-match.

“He’ll be very important for us in both series so we’ll look forward to getting him back”.

“So the young players will be looking to gain as much experience as possible and try and compete with Australia”.