The Aussie summer starts here

Marlon Samuels: a perfect start to the tour; now all he needs to do is replicate his tour-game form in the first Test © Getty Images

A West Indies-Australia Test at the Gabba is always a special occasion to mark the start of summer. It doesn't matter that the last contest was dramatically one-sided, an upturn of the thrashings delivered by the tourists in the 1980s, or that the current squad is still searching for batsmen to support Brian Lara consistently and bowlers to putty over the Ambrose and Walsh gaps. In Australia the West Indians turn heads and raise expectations.

The tourist's second Test at the ground flamed their reputation and began a magical season that ended in a street parade through Melbourne to farewell Frank Worrell's side. Forty-five years ago the game's most famous tie occurred at a venue as unrecognisable today as the squad for the three-Test series is to its world-beating predecessors. Despite their dramatic decline, the West Indians retain their enticing charm and their arrival in Brisbane two weeks ago was covered in the news pages of The Courier-Mail, which sent a reporter to follow them shopping.

During the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s West Indian teams felt like extended family to Australians, arriving most years before Christmas and staying for summers that didn't want to end. They battered Australia and it hurt fingers, chests and pride, but their brilliant batting and fearsome bowling was respected and privately enjoyed. These memories linger and will burden Shivnarine Chanderpaul's side over the next month. It is not his only worry.

Since West Indies inflicted Australia's last home series defeat in 1992-93 they have won only two Tests on two tours. The last trip in 2000-01 was a 5-0 disaster, beginning with a total of 82 in Brisbane and finishing with the end of the captain Jimmy Adams's career. Australia can be a cruel destination for leaders and the scheduling has made Chanderpaul the first sustained target of Australia's Ashes-loss backlash. A disparate World XI were flattened last month and nothing acts as a better wedge for Caribbean players of proud nations than a series of demoralising losses.

A battery of fast bowlers, shorter than West Indies have traditionally had, has been employed to upset Australia this time, but with most of them relatively inexperienced it is not known whether they will be positively or negatively charged. Corey Collymore is the senior man and is jostling for positions with Fidel Edwards, Jermaine Lawson, Daren Powell, Tino Best and the allrounder Dwayne Bravo.

The batting is more settled following Wavell Hinds's finger injury and Marlon Samuels's double-century against Queensland, but Brian Lara, who is 316 runs from Allan Border's world record, is again the marked man. How and when he snaps his out-of-form streak will almost certainly determine West Indies' competitiveness against a team still holding world-champion status.

For Australia the series is a chance to re-assert dominance and they are also using it to tinker for the future. Shane Watson is set for an extended run as allrounder despite struggling for influence in both disciplines during his two previous Tests, and a new opening combination has been forced by Justin Langer's withdrawal with a fractured rib. Michael Hussey will make his debut but with Michael Clarke, the new No. 4, being followed by Simon Katich, Watson and Adam Gilchrist, the batting order carries rare uncertainty. Both sides sense a contest of opportunity.

Australia haven't lost a Test at the Gabba since 1988, when Curtly Ambrose introduced himself with a six-wicket, Man-of-the-Match performance alongside Malcolm Marshall and Courtney Walsh. Viv Richards, batting in his 100th Test behind Greenidge, Haynes, Richardson and Hooper, was bounced three times by a young upstart named Steve Waugh.

West Indies ruled the world during that decade and the regular defeats steeled Australia as their long-term replacement. England unveiled some soft spots during the winter and West Indies must rain regular and strategic follow-up punches if they are to turn an empire's one-series stumble into a Caribbean-style crumble.

Australia 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Michael Hussey, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Clarke, 5 Simon Katich, 6 Shane Watson, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Nathan Bracken, 11 Glenn McGrath.

West Indies (probable) 1 Chris Gayle, 2 Devon Smith, 3 Ramnaresh Sarwan, 4 Brian Lara, 5 Shivnarine Chanderpaul (capt), 6 Marlon Samuels, 7 Dwayne Bravo, 8 Denesh Ramdin (wk), 9 Jermaine Lawson, 10 Fidel Edwards, 11 Corey Collymore.