Mumbai: The West Indies captain Brian Lara said his team will bank a lot on Chris Gayle’s opening fireworks in their match against Australia on Wednesday.

“Keeping the nature of the wicket in mind, our strategy will be to put runs on the board. If we bat first, it has to be a defendable total and Gayle needs to play a crucial role,” Lara said.

He admitted that Gayle’s failure against Sri Lanka had a heavy impact on the team’s abject nine-wicket defeat. “Every team sends their key batsman up the order. India have Sachin Tendulkar, Australia have Gilchrist. Gayle’s our top-order batsman and a lot depends on him,” he added.