Check out the Racing And Sports Preview for the Test this summer with a betting idea at the end.

AUSTRALIA v WEST INDIES

2nd Test

25 – 29 January 2024 @ the Gabba

Inevitability – is defined as the quality of being certain to happen.

Now while there is no way you can ever say anything is certain in cricket, nay life, what occurred in Adelaide was patently obvious.

But maybe while the outcome encapsulated that certainty, the manner of arriving at that conclusion wasn't.

Once again Australia showed how heavily they rely on the superb, relentless, uncompromising bowling attack because the batsman really have had a weak period in toto.

It has taken one, and sometimes two, of them to keep their team in matches or place them in positions to win them. Besides Khawaja's longevity and Travis Head's rapid interventions, the rest have had poor years.

And yet they won the World Test Championship, secured The Ashes (albeit losing them morally) and, with essentially the same team, added a sixth World Cup at Ahmedabad.

You have to give the Steve Smith experiment time and definitely the same for Cameron Green at 4. But for Marnus Labuschagne, besides an Ashes saving hundred at dreary Manchester, you had to go back to the last time the Windies were in Adelaide to end 2022 for his last three figures.

No doubt Marsh and Carey are the types of players who may well be hit and miss at times but at any one time, you do lack confidence that a dominant team batting effort is likely.

That is not to decry Travis Head's efforts. He also scored a big hundred in that same innings in Adelaide as Labuschagne did 13 months back. But around the excellent WTC knock, he's had a lot of 'what if' innings.

Fourteen scores above 38 but short of a century ensued. He was getting flying starts but not capitalising. Naturally most of them were very high in strike rate.

Well he put that right producing a sustained and concentrated show for his home crowd. But it was more than that. Strangely for a day test on an Adelaide Oval deck, the ball moved off the seam and had variable bounce.

Head still had plenty of positivity but was effectively the only batter in the entire Test to show any command. In Head, Marsh and Carey, this team's middle order will be playing their own minor version of counter-attacking 'Bazball' for a while.

While Head and the combination of pack wolves with the ball took the local headlines, it was that of a youngster for the tourists who shone.

Shamar Joseph was doing his best impression of a cricketing rock star as he made the most remarkable start to a test career. Knocking over Steve Smith is one thing. Doing it first ball with a lovely leg cutter is even better.

Then you tack on Labuschagne and Green plus putting it up the tail and you have some debut. He has the looks, the bling and the back story – he may have a decent cricketing future with it.

With an action not unlike former West Indian quick Winston Benjamin, he didn't just want to target the helmet. He was bowling a lovely line and length and at good clicks too. Usman Khawaja knew that second time around.

The greatest of Windies speedsters were very much that. Sure they could play the chin music but Ambrose, Marshall, Roberts etc were some of the best chasers of the outside edge ever. If Joseph has that in his arsenal and stays at 140kph, he's playing with a good deck of cards.

That was on top of his spending an hour at the crease beforehand, playing inventive strokes and adding over 50 for the last wicket.

There was also enough from the newcomers like McKenzie and Greaves around the experience of Roach and Alzarri Joseph to start to see a little backbone of a team again.

Sadly, even just a 95 run deficit on first dig made that foreseeable decline a formality, especially after Mr Metronome Hazlewood kept putting them on a dangerous length. He does love Adelaide.

They head to Brisbane, and in line with degradation of this West Indies Test side, the records there have followed suit. This time we are day-nighting.

Since the 1992 draw, thanks to stoic last day defence from Richie Richardson and Ian Bishop, the last four games have been very one-sided.

You would think pace and bounce (the very essence of the Gabba over the years) would sit well with the touring side. But their techniques have wavered and their bowling a struggle.

Given all this, you'd expect Australia will go in unchanged despite the concerns around the Khawaja concession issues (now cleared) after his contretemps with Joseph.

And so, in this current set up, you can bet Travis Head won't be backing down on his style. But with the added confidence from the century, he'll be loving life and maintaining the rage.

His Gabba scores are 84, 24, 152, 92 and a globe. He'll be staying leg side and flailing cuts and drives combined with pulls and hooks. Stay on the fast moving tram.

100% certainty (bar Black Caviar or Frankel) does not exist in life very often. Perhaps the only thing that did fulfil the criteria out of Adelaide, bar the result, was that Shamar Joseph won't have too many troubles in life.