Clarke To Skipper Aussies

Clarke - eyeing a whitewash.

An injury to skipper Ricky Ponting has opened the door for Michael Clarke to captain Australia for the first time in a one-day international.

Ponting will miss the fourth one-dayer against the West Indies in St Kitts on Friday because of a wrist injury.

Clarke, who has captained Australia in Twenty20 internationals, will become his country's 18th ODI skipper when he takes to the field at Warner Park.

Uncapped batsman David Hussey will replace Ponting in the Australian starting XI.

Skipper Clarke is targeting a clean sweep over the struggling West Indies.

"We've lost a lot of players from both forms of the games - and if we win this 5-0, it will be a great start to what is a new era," Clarke told AAP.

"The greatest strength of the Australian cricket team is when you lose, you feel it like you would not believe, whether it's a one-day game, a Twenty20 game, whatever game.

"It's because we have a great habit of winning 90% of the games we play. So I'm certain that none of the boys want to go home 4-1 or 3-2."

West Indies skipper Chris Gayle concedes that his team have nothing but pride to play for in the final two matches.

"We've discussed the situation we are in. Everybody from the outside saw what is going on," he was quoted by CMC.

"We are still playing for pride. We want to win these two games and give the fans something to cheer about. We are looking forward to it."

"We are making some simple mistakes. It cost us. We can take a leaf from Australia's book, the way they go about cricket.

"Our batting has been letting us down. We've been stressing on it. We're trying to find the solution to conquer it."

The home team have called up the uncapped Nikita Miller for the final two matches against Australia.

The left-arm spinner, who had a strong domestic season, replaces Sulieman Benn. Fast bowler Kemar Roach and Jamaica batsman Shawn Findlay have also been included.

Squads:

West Indies: Chris Gayle (captain), Xavier Marshall, Ramnaresh Sarwan, André Fletcher, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, Shawn Findlay, Dwayne Bravo, Denesh Ramdin, Darren Sammy, Daren Powell, Fidel Edwards, Nikita Miller, Kemar Roach.

Australia: Michael Clarke (captain), Shaun Marsh, Shane Watson, Mike Hussey, David Hussey, Andrew Symonds, James Hopes, Luke Ronchi, Brett Lee, Cameron White, Mitchell Johnson, Nathan Bracken, Stuart Clark.