BRISBANE - It looms as one of the most lop-sided test series played.
But a rejuvenated Australia believe their three matches against the underrated West Indies starting in Brisbane today will provide one of their great challenges. And two words sum up why - Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Skipper Ricky Ponting was
cursing the name following last year's away series, despite Australia again emerging triumphant to ensure they had won 14 of their past 16 series against the Windies.
Desperate to redeem themselves after their ill-fated Ashes trip, Australia are again expected to steamroll an inexperienced Windies.
But after averaging a remarkable 147.33 in the 2008 series, Chanderpaul is the obvious stumbling block.
Ponting hopes the secret to finally dismissing Chanderpaul lies in the Australian decks - especially a juicy Gabba pitch.
"We couldn't [get him out]," Ponting said of Chanderpaul. "I think the wickets here will help a little bit more, the wickets we played on in the Caribbean just didn't bounce at all.
"The way he plays, his technique, the ball bouncing on him will be something that he mightn't cope with as well. When you've got [Mitchell] Johnson, [Peter] Siddle, [Ben] Hilfenhaus and [Doug] Bollinger in your squad, guys who get a little bit more bounce out of the track, then hopefully we can look like getting him out.
"Holding on to catches will also help."
Australian opener Simon Katich was still ruing a missed chance in the Caribbean when he inevitably pinpointed Chanderpaul as their major threat.
"We had some pretty good plans for him, unfortunately a couple of times we dropped him - I think I was to blame there," Katich said.
But Katich backed Ponting's call that Chanderpaul faced a very different proposition in Australia starting with a challenging early Gabba deck.
"It's generally one of the hardest first sessions in Australian cricket [in Brisbane]," he said.
But there will be no sympathy from an Australian side hoping to exorcise their Ashes demons.
"We want to bounce back from what happened in England," Katich said.
"We have to move on and get bigger and better - hopefully that happens this summer."
- AAP
