CAN­BER­RA–Ex­cit­ing West In­dies all-rounder An­dre Rus­sell is champ­ing at the bit to face Aus­tralia, and says he is back­ing him­self to ex­e­cute against the for­mer World cham­pi­ons.

Rus­sell, along with the Dar­ren Sam­my-led West In­dies side, ar­rived yes­ter­day (Fri­day af­ter­noon, East­ern Caribbean time) fol­low­ing 28 hours of trav­el from the Caribbean.

West In­dies will play the Aussies in five-match One-Day In­ter­na­tion­al se­ries and a one-off Twen­ty20, be­gin­ning Feb­ru­ary 1 in Perth.

The last time Rus­sell faced Aus­tralia in ODIs, he was on top of his game with bat and ball, help­ing the Windies to a 2-2 ver­dict in the five-match se­ries in the Caribbean last year.

With the mem­o­ries still fresh, the ath­let­ic Ja­maica is hop­ing he can once again have a say in the out­come of the se­ries.

"It boosts my con­fi­dence play­ing against top teams such as Aus­tralia. It boosts me as a play­er," Rus­sell said on ar­rival here.

"I am look­ing for­ward to do­ing well again against Aus­tralia. I've got­ten some good scores against them and put on a cru­cial part­ner­ship with Sam­my but we couldn't get the job done they way we would've liked to get it done in that game.

In that Caribbean out­ing, Rus­sell came alive in the third game with the se­ries locked at 1-1, punch­ing a cameo 37 from 42 balls in a 64-run, sev­enth wick­et stand with Carl­ton Baugh, as the con­test end­ed in a dra­mat­ic tie.

His near run-a-ball 34 and two-wick­et haul in the fourth game saw Windies to vic­to­ry but his 33-ball 41 � in a cen­tu­ry stand with Sam­my–and four wick­ets were not enough to save the hosts from de­feat in the fi­nal game. Though it will be his first time play­ing in Aus­tralia, Rus­sell said he ex­pect­ed con­di­tions to be favourable.

"I'm look­ing for­ward to do­ing my best in Aus­tralia. [There will be] boun­cy weeks and I hope it pleas­es the way I play in terms of bowl­ing and bat­ting so I am look­ing for­ward to a good se­ries," said the 24-year-old, who bowls a brisk right-arm medi­um pace.

West In­dies will open the tour with a one-day en­counter against a Prime Min­is­ter's XI on Tues­day. (CMC)