KINGSTON (Jamaica), May 22: Australia captain Ricky Ponting won the toss and chose to bat against a West Indies side missing pace bowler Jerome Taylor for Thursday’s opening Test at Sabina Park.

Taylor was ruled out with a lower back injury allowing Trinidadian off-spinner Amit Jaggernauth to make his debut.

The absence of strike bowler Taylor is a blow for the home side who are already without injured captain and opening batsman Chris Gayle with Ramnaresh Sarwan deputising as skipper.

Australia, without the injured Matthew Hayden and Michael Clarke who is on compassionate leave, recalled Simon Katich to open with Brad Hodge coming in at No 5.

Wicket-keeper Brad Haddin, who has replaced the retired Adam Gilchrist, makes his Test debut for the tourists.

Teams:

West Indies: Ramnaresh Sarwan (captain), Runako Morton, Darren Sammy, Devon Smith, Brenton Parchment, Dwayne Bravo, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Denesh Ramdin (wicket-keeper), Fidel Edwards, Amit Jaggernauth, Daren Powell.

Australia: Ricky Ponting (captain), Phil Jaques, Simon Katich, Michael Hussey, Brad Hodge, Andrew Symonds, Brad Haddin (wicket-keeper), Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Stuart Clark, Stuart MacGill.—Reuters