“I felt good in the nets [here in Melbourne]. It felt better than I did in Canberra so hopefully I will be able to get a good start tomorrow, move on from there to get a good score and help the team to start the series on a winning note,” Gayle said after yesterday’s training session.
Gayle, the Windies captain, sent a stern warning to the Aussies earlier this week when he blasted 146 from 89 balls in a warm-up match against the Prime Minister’s XI.
The left-hander also had a good run during the Test series here last December, hammering two centuries to emerge as the leading batsman on either side.
“Over here suits my batting a bit more [than in other countries]. With the bounce and pace and the ball coming onto the bat makes it good place for me to perform,” said the 30-year-old Jamaican who has already plundered 19 centuries in scoring 7 429 runs from 205 One-Day Internationals.
“It has been a good summer for me so hopefully I can carry on and it would be nice to start on a high, but most of all I want a victory for us.”
Gayle said while he was pleased with his personal form, he was focused on getting the West Indies to achieve positive results against the in-form Aussies.
He said though experienced players were missing, he believed he had a squad which could beat the Australians and make up for their 2-0 loss in the Test series.
“We will take it one match at a time. As you can see Australia are playing good cricket and will be difficult to beat. But we are confident and this is a lovely opportunity for some of the players to come up against Australia and make a name. As I said before, we can win,” Gayle stressed.
“We are looking forward to the one-day series in a big way. The Test matches are gone and we are looking for a brand new start. I always say getting the runs in the board is the most important thing.
“We are capable batsmen and we believe we can go out there and get the job done. We are expecting big things from the players in this series. You can see the confidence is there among the players in the camp and whoever gets a start we will be expecting them to go on and get a big score for the team.”
Australia will enter the series on the back of a superb run after staging a clean sweep of the five-match series against Pakistan recently.
