Ambrose confident West Indies can beat Australia

West Indies believe they can shock Australia in their Test series, according to great fast bowler Curtly Ambrose.

The tourists were thrashed by 10 wickets by a Cricket Australia XI in a tour match, leading to fears they may be embarrassed in the three-Test series starting Thursday.

Despite those concerns, Ambrose – now the Windies’ bowling coach – said his team had come to Australia eyeing more than just being competitive.

“It’s not a matter of what we’ve changed. It’s the way going forward,” he told a news conference on Tuesday.

“We played against Australia not so long ago in the Caribbean and even though we lost 2-0, there were moments and periods when we had them on the back foot, their backs against the wall, but never really finished them off.

“So we believe that we can compete, and not only compete but we believe we can beat them and that’s the whole focus – to beat Australia. Not just to compete but to win.

“We’re underdogs but sometimes it’s good to be that way. We have nothing to lose.

“As far as I’m concerned, Australia is the only one under pressure because they have to beat us because Australians and cricket in general expect them to steamroll us so they’re the ones under pressure, not us.

“We’re going to put on a good show.”

Since the teams met in June, the likes of Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin and Mitchell Johnson have retired for Australia.

Asked if he felt the hosts were vulnerable due to the numerous changes, Ambrose said they would still be hard to beat.

“I wouldn’t want to say they’re vulnerable. They’re still a good team,” he said.

“They’re playing at home, they know the conditions better than us, we have a pretty young team as well.

“We are not playing as well as we should or we can play so it’s going to be interesting.

“I believe that we have enough bowlers in our line-up to create some problems and that to me is going to be very important.”