Good to see team under pressure: Langer

Australia coach Justin Langer is looking forward to seeing how his young side handles the pressure of win-or-bust cricket as the ODI tri-series in the West Indies reaches its crescendo this week.

The washed-out match between Australia and South Africa in Barbados on Monday morning (AEST) means Langer's men face a simple scenario - avoid defeat against the Windies on Wednesday and they reach the tournament final, lose and they go home.

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In a side that has been shorn of five of the players who steered them to World Cup glory last year, Langer says it's a chance to see if his playing group – which has an average age of less than 27 - can handle the heat.

"All one-day internationals are pressure games, but certainly in this instance ... there's real pressure," the caretaker coach said. "It's game on.

"We haven't done ourselves any favours in a sense that we haven't got ourselves automatically into the final like we would have liked, so it's good to see guys under pressure.

"And this will be a little bit more pressure than a normal one-day international on Tuesday."

While the self-titled "novice coach" boasts only three weeks of experience at international level, he's no stranger to leading his side in must-win games.

His Perth Scorchers have played in three KFC Big Bash League finals under his watch, winning two of them, while his WA Warriors triumphed in the 2014 Matador Cup final.

And Langer's experience at domestic level has taught him that less is more when it comes to preparing his side for a big game.

"I always believe the harder you try, the worse it gets," he said.

"If we beat (the Windies it will be) on skill, not emotion, and not getting caught up in the actual game.

"Sometimes in big games what you tend to do is over-analyse it. You want everything to be perfect but often ... the less you can put in their mind, the more you can just let them go and play (the better).

"We don't have team meetings in Twenty20 cricket (with the Scorchers). We might have one or two dots up on the board.

"And people will talk about all this analysis of different oppositions. Well, I must be doing it wrong at the Scorchers, because we tend to go the opposite way. We want to simplify it, particularly for young minds.

"And for senior players, they've been there before. We don't need to complicate it for them. They've got their cues, they know their processes.

"So we'll just try and keep it as simple as possible and hopefully they can go out and play and enjoy the experience of playing at this magnificent ground."

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Langer said the big-game experience of Glenn Maxwell was part of the reason the allrounder was brought back into the side to take on the Proteas having been left out for the previous two matches, while World Cup player-of-the-tournament Mitchell Starc also returned to boost the Aussies this week.

But it's an international rookie, legspinner Adam Zampa, who Langer said would come back into the equation for the clash with the Windies.

Zampa was replaced in the side for Monday's match by fast-bowler Scott Boland, a decision Langer says was made due to the slippery conditions that would have hampered Zampa's ability to grip the ball.

And despite the West Indies hitting the 24-year-old being for six sixes at the tiny Warner Park in St Kitts last week, Langer said his young charge would bounce back.

"I think he's been pretty good. He probably just got his lines a bit wrong the other night," the coach said.

"He went a bit wide and with some of those big West Indians, if you just get it in their arc as we saw, they're going to belt you out of the ground.

"But he's learning and he was the first to admit after the game that he perhaps didn't get his strategy right.

"And he's usually really good, he's a really competitive young bloke.

"We'll work out what the best way to beat the West Indies is. Whether it's with a legspinner or four quicks - which is always so successful in Australia for us - we'll work all that out in the next 24 hours."