Hazlewood fit and ready for final Windies Test

‘I felt pretty good last week, I guess it was good just to spend a little bit of time in the middle again, ‘ Smith said.

An inexperienced and demoralised West Indies touring party succumbed by an innings and 212 runs in Hobart and 177 runs in Melbourne to hand their hosts an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

“It’s going to spin and it gives us an opportunity now to see Steven and see how he goes”, Smith said.

Smith expects the pitch to turn, noting the wicket “looks quite dry”.

The last time Australia played two spinners in a home Test it was far from a resounding success, despite an eight-wicket win over South Africa at the SCG.

With the series easily won and a dead Test still to play, Australia coach Darren Lehmann today talked up the West Indies for finally finding some fight.

“Peter Siddle’s still a bit sore and he’ll have a rest for a couple of weeks and hopefully get himself right for New Zealand”.

Australia spinner Steve O’Keefe insists he would be unfazed by missing out on a spot in the XI for the third Test against West Indies.

It is not expected to get much better for the Windies at the SCG but Holder is buoyed by the tourists’ resolve shown against the Aussies in the second match.

“And once that ball gets older, the two spinners taking the brunt of the workload might (allow us to) bring the quicks back in shorter spells, and we might be able to go hard at them for different stages”.

O’Keefe has taken 191 wickets for New South Wales at an average of less than 25 in the decade since his Shield debut and this season has captured 36 wickets in five Sheffield Shield matches.

“There is a certain aura, a magic, a charisma about the West Indies cricketers that is really unique and Australians relate to it”, he told reporters.

West Indies (from) – Kraigg Brathwaite, Rajendra Chandrika, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Jermaine Blackwood, Denesh Ramdin, Jason Holder (capt), Carlos Brathwaite, Kemar Roach, Jerome Taylor, Devendra Bishoo, Jomel Warrican.

“Our bowlers still need to be a lot more disciplined than we are at the moment”, Holder said. Our batting’s been very good all summer.

“I’m looking forward to the next few games with them and trying to build on what we achieved tonight”.

David Warner, Joe Burns, Usman Khawaja, Steve Smith (c), Adam Voges, Mitchell Marsh, Peter Nevill (wk), James Pattinson, Stephen O’Keefe, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon.