Six takeaways from Australia's T20 demolition of West Indies

A history-making 5-0 series win for Australia over West Indies – we break down the talking points ahead of the home summer

01:30 Play video Match Wrap | Perfect tour complete as Aussies sweep WI

Captain Mitch Marsh flagged opportunity as a key theme ahead of Australia's five-match T20 series against West Indies – which kicked off a stretch of 19 games building up to next year's T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.

Missing star opener Travis Head and the pace trio of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood, who were all rested following the Test series, Australia still romped to their first ever five-nil series sweep in the T20 format.

It was Australia's third series sweep in their past four bilateral campaigns after beating both Scotland and Pakistan 3-0 last year, while they extended their current winning streak to eight matches – their equal longest in the T20 format.

Every player in the 15-man squad got on the park throughout the series in a testament to Australia's depth as competition for spots in the 15 for next year's T20 World Cup heats up.

Here are the main takeaways from Australia's demolition of West Indies as Marsh's side head home to kick off the Aussie summer with a three-match T20 series against South Africa beginning in Darwin on August 10.

Powerful batting unit beats West Indies at their own game

Australia spent a large portion of their training sessions in the lead up and throughout the series on their range hitting, and it paid off in spades as they out-hit West Indies – who are renowned big hitters – 64 sixes to 53 across the five matches.

Tim David, who blasted the fastest international century by an Australian in the third T20, topped the list with 15 sixes, followed by Cameron Green and newcomer Mitch Owen on 12 each, with West Indies trio Brandon King (11), Shimron Hetmyer (10) and skipper Shai Hope (9) behind them.

01:27 Play video David turns Goliath with phenomenal 37-ball century

"It's a small ground, so there's always going to be more sixes than normal but if you look down our batting order, in all the five games, we had a lot of power," Australia captain Marsh told cricket.com.au post-series.

"The messaging to the guys is just to play their natural game and there's a lot of power there, so they're going to hit a lot of sixes and hopefully it continues."

Australia's middle-order goes BIG again! 💥

Tim David and Mitchell Owen both tee off for seven sixes between them.

Catch every ball of Australia’s tour of the West Indies live on ESPN on Disney+ 📺 pic.twitter.com/uTgqa4toYV — ESPN Australia & NZ (@ESPNAusNZ) July 29, 2025

After the first three games, Australia had already eclipsed their previous highest tally of sixes in a single series (42 v India in 2023), and by they end of the five matches, they had gone past the 50 and 57 sixes they hit during seven games in each of the 2010 and 2024 T20 World Cups respectively, which were both held in the Caribbean.

No team in T20 internationals have cleared the rope at a better rate than Australia since the start of 2024, with Marsh's side boasting the fewest balls faced per six (11.1) than any other team. Australia also have the highest batting average (31.36) and strike rate (167.69) in the same period, which is 10 runs more per 100s balls than their nearest rival (India – 157.49).

Nathan Ellis continues to be Australia's unlucky white-ball man

If Scott Boland should have played a lot more Test matches, then Nathan Ellis should have played a lot more T20 internationals.

As good as he has been this series, where he went at an economy of 7.88 – the lowest of any bowler to play more than half of the five matches – the Hobart Hurricanes skipper faces the prospect of not being an automatic starter come Australia's World Cup opener in February next year when the pace trio of Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins return.

Ellis took six wickets across the five T20s // AFP via Getty

But Ellis' economy in the death overs (16-20) is better than any Australian bowler to have delivered more than one over during that period in the past 18 months, while his overall economy rate of 7.11 is behind only Josh Hazlewood (6.82) of specialist quicks to have played for Australia since the start of 2024.

Australia's depth to give selectors headaches

Australia have won 22 of their past 26 T20 matches, using 28 different players across that stretch with only the calendar year of 2014 (29) seeing more players picked in the nation's T20 side.

This series saw Australia blood two new players, Mitch Owen and Matt Kuhnemann, while player-of-the-series Cameron Green hit three half-centuries on his return to the side following back surgery.

Josh Inglis, who couldn't get a look in during last year's World Cup in the Caribbean, thrived at No.3 with 78 not out in the second game and 51 in the fourth in a position he hopes to "make (his) own" for Australia, while seamers Ellis, Ben Dwarshuis and Sean Abbott impressed in the absence of the 'big three' in Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins.

Batter Jake Fraser-McGurk and allrounders Cooper Connolly and Aaron Hardie, along with paceman Xavier Bartlett were given opportunities throughout the series.

Top order batters Head and Matt Short are set to return for the home series against South Africa beginning in Darwin in less than a fortnight, leaving George Bailey and his selection panel a tough task when it comes to narrowing the squad to 15 for next year's T20 World Cup, which would be expected to include Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins.

"Depth is a privilege to have and hopefully we can keep building on that," Mitch Marsh sad.

"We saw a lot of guys come in – Mitch Owen, I thought Cam Green was fantastic, Nathan Ellis again was outstanding. Everyone played their part so it's going be a good challenge for us, but we'll certainly welcome a few blokes back in.

"Obviously, (Owen) in the last 12 months has done a lot of batting at the top of the order, but we wanted to give him that opportunity to play a finishing role and keep building out his game with Travis Head coming back in.

"He took on the challenge and didn't seem overawed by the occasion of playing international cricket."

Pace battery destructive in death overs

While Australia's powerful batting unit may have out-hit West Indies, the biggest difference between the two sides was their death bowling.

Australia took 15 wickets in the final five overs of the innings across the five matches, which limited West Indies' ability to kick on to post defendable totals after scoring more than 100 runs in the first half of their batting innings in three of the five games.

Australia's death overs strike rate of 9.87 balls per wicket for the series was almost half the West Indies strike rate (17.5) during the same period, with the hosts also bowling fewer than half the amount of death overs due to the speed at which Australia chased down their targets.

00:33 Play video Outrageous! Maxwell makes remarkable boundary-line catch

This series continued Australia's strong form bowling at the death which has seen them strike once every 8.08 balls bowled between overs 16-20 since the last T20 World Cup, which is behind only New Zealand (8.02) among teams who have played five or more T20 internationals in the past 13 months. Their economy (7.37) for the same period is also among the top five teams in the world.

"In the last four overs, we didn't go for more than 40 (in a single innings) across the five games, which certainly against West Indies is really hard to do," Marsh said.

"All of the bowlers executed; Nathan Ellis was outstanding, Sean Abbott was brilliant, Ben Dwarshuis hasn't played a lot but did a really good role and even Xavier Bartlett has grown as a bowler.

"We'll hopefully keep building this depth for our guys to come in here and feel comfortable and just focus on exuding their skills."

Cameron Green is an all-format superstar in waiting

Green's 18-ball 32 in the fifth T20 in St Kitts lifted him to the top of the series runs tally with 205 at 68.33, while also striking at 164 runs per 100 balls – an incredible return for someone who prior to the series had only played five T20 matches in the past 12 months.

Most Runs Player Total 1 Cameron Green C Green 205 2 Shai Hope S Hope 185 3 Josh Inglis J Inglis 172 4 Brandon King B King 160 5 Tim David T David 132 6 Shimron Hetmyer S Hetmyer 129 7 Mitchell Owen M Owen 125

The 26-year-old grew in confidence throughout Australia's Caribbean tour, finishing the Test campaign with scores of 52, 46 and 42 in his new role at No.3 before cracking three T20 half-centuries from No.4 to earn player-of-the-series honours.

The right-hander's immense power was on full display throughout the five matches as he finished with the second most boundaries with 26 (12 sixes and 14 fours) behind Josh Inglis on 31 (9 sixes and 22 fours).

"He played some really critical roles for us with the bat and was awesome in field," Marsh said.

01:30 Play video Match Wrap | Inglis and Green power St Kitts chasedown

But Green knows he potentially faces a challenge to hang onto the No.4 spot once Travis Head and potentially Matt Short return to the top of the order.

"There's about five guys in this team that could bat No.4 so it was a good opportunity this series … I'll have to wait and see moving forward," he said.

"I'm still trying to work (T20 batting) out. I had great partnerships around me (during the series)."

Australia is the world's form side in T20 internationals

Australia have lost only one of their past 13 T20 internationals since last year's World Cup and boast the best winning percentage (92.3) of the world's top 15 ranked teams in that period.

Their win in the fifth T20 completed their first ever 5-0 sweep in a five-match series – and just the second ever after India's 5-0 victory over New Zealand in 2020. It also equalled Australia's longest winning streak (8) in T20 internationals, which they'll have a chance to better when their three-match series against South Africa gets underway in Darwin from August 10.

With another T20 World Cup in seven months' time in India and Sri Lanka, Australia's current form has them as one of the teams to beat.

"There's obviously a T20 World Cup not too far away … we know T20 can be a lottery at times so to build a bit of consistency is pretty important," Green said.

Qantas Tour of the West Indies

First T20I: Australia won by three wickets

Second T20I: Australia won by eight wickets

Third T20I: Australia won by six wickets

Fourth T20I: Australia won by three wickets

Fifth T20I: Australia won by three wickets

West Indies T20 squad: Shai Hope (c), Jewel Andrew, Jediah Blades, Roston Chase, Matthew Forde (St Kitts only), Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Gudakesh Motie, Rovman Powell, Andre Russell (Kingston only), Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd

Australia's T20 squad: Mitchell Marsh (c), Sean Abbott, Xavier Bartlett, Cooper Connolly, Tim David, Ben Dwarshius, Nathan Ellis, Jake Fraser-McGurk, Cameron Green, Aaron Hardie, Josh Inglis, Matt Kuhnemann, Glenn Maxwell, Mitch Owen, Adam Zampa

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