Australia make four changes for final T20 against Windies

Australia have made four changes to their side for the fifth and final T20 International against West Indies in St Lucia, reverting back to the tried and tested 'six and five' selection approach favoured by coach Justin Langer.

Windies stand-in captain Nicholas Pooran won his first toss of the series and elected to bat first.

Leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson and death specialist Andrew Tye have both been named for their first games on tour while Josh Hazlewood and Josh Philippe return to the side following one and two-game absences respectively.

Final-over hero from their most recent match, Mitchell Starc, has been rested while Riley Meredith, Dan Christian and Ashton Turner have also been left out.

Philippe returns to open the batting after making 1 and 13 from No.4 in the first two games, pushing wicketkeeper Matthew Wade down to number six.

Ashton Agar (hamstring) and Ben McDermott (quad) remain unavailable through injury but both are expected to be right for the one-day international series beginning in Barbados next week.

The Windies have recalled Darren Bravo for his first international T20 in more than two years at the expense of left-arm spinner Akeal Hosein.

They remain without regular skipper Kieron Pollard, the most capped T20 player of all-time, while Dwayne Bravo (the half-brother of Darren) is sitting out for a second straight game.

Swepson's recall for just his fifth international match comes after he successfully partnered with fellow leggie Adam Zampa during last summer's T20I series against India, also when Agar was nursing an injury.

The reinstitution of a five-bowler, six batter line-up marks a return to familiarity for the Aussies, even if the continued absence of bowling allrounder Agar means their tail, on paper, looks lengthy.

Swepson (whose career T20 batting average is 5.25 and has a top-score of 12no) and Tye (batting average 11.41) are listed to come in at seven and eight respectively.

Having five specialist bowlers to call on has been a method favoured by Langer, adapting it from his tenure at the Perth Scorchers (with whom he won three KFC BBL titles) to the national side since taking over three years ago.

But he admitted at the tour's outset it is not necessarily a blueprint he is wedded to as Australia look to find a winning formula to claim their first ever T20 World Cup title.

"The six batsmen and five specialist bowlers - it's certainly a model I've gone with throughout my whole head coaching career, there's no surprise to anyone with that. And it's been a very successful model," Langer said last week.

"But if you look ahead … We might look at this 7-4 model, where you have a couple of allrounders. Different teams do it differently around the world.

"Looking ahead also to the World Cup, if we look at where it's being played – the UAE – there's going to be enormous amount of traffic on those wickets, with the IPL, the PSL that has already been – we're going to play on some pretty worn wickets, especially towards the back end of the World Cup.

"We might have to find different ways of winning our games."

The absence of Starc comes after Hazlewood missed game four, a likely ploy from the visitors to keep their two strike fast bowlers fresh for the 50-over games to come.

The three-game series beginning Wednesday morning (Australian eastern time) will be played in the space of five days.

West Indies XI: Andre Fletcher, Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Nicholas Pooran (c, wk), Andre Russell, Fabian Allen, Hayden Walsh, Sheldon Cottrell, Oshane Thomas

Australia XI: Aaron Finch (c), Josh Philippe, Mitch Marsh, Moises Henriques, Alex Carey, Matthew Wade (wk), Mitchell Swepson, Andrew Tye, Jason Behrendorff, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood

Qantas Tour of the West Indies 2021

Australia squad: Aaron Finch (c), Ashton Agar, Wes Agar, Jason Behrendorff, Alex Carey, Dan Christian, Josh Hazlewood, Moises Henriques, Mitchell Marsh, Ben McDermott, Riley Meredith, Josh Philippe, Mitchell Starc, Mitchell Swepson, Ashton Turner, Andrew Tye, Matthew Wade, Adam Zampa. Travelling reserves: Nathan Ellils, Tanveer Sangha.

West Indies T20 squad: Kieron Pollard (c), Nicholas Pooran (vc), Fabian Allen, Dwayne Bravo, Sheldon Cottrell, Fidel Edwards, Andre Fletcher, Chris Gayle, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Evin Lewis, Obed McCoy, Andre Russell, Lendl Simmons, Kevin Sinclair, Oshane Thomas, Hayden Walsh Jr

T20 series
(all matches at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, St Lucia)

First T20: West Indies won by 18 runs

Second T20: West Indies won by 56 runs

Third T20: West Indies won by six wickets

Fourth T20: Australia won by four runs

Fifth T20: July 17, 9.30am AEST (July 16, 7.30pm local)

ODI series
(all matches at Kensington Oval, Barbados)

First ODI (D/N): July 21, 4.30am AEST (July 20, 2.30pm local)

Second ODI (D/N): July 23, 4.30am AEST (July 22, 2.30pm local)

Third ODI (D/N): July 25, 4.30am AEST (July 24, 2.30pm local)

* Details of five-match T20 tour of Bangladesh are yet to be announced by the Bangladesh Cricket Board. Tours are subject to agreement on bio-security arrangements and relevant government approvals.