Lyon rejoices at slow-bowlers cartel

Having carried the spin workload alone for most of his career, Nathan Lyon is thrilled to finally have a few slow-bowling companions by his side.

Australia's spin trio of Lyon, Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell took 7-58 between them in their one-day international tri-series opener against the West Indies on Monday (AEST) to help rout the hosts for just 116 in a comfortable six-wicket win.

Quick Single: Aussie spin twins spark Windies rout

It was the first time since October 2014 that Australia has fielded two front-line spinners in the same ODI side, with the off-spin of allrounder Maxwell a more than handy third slow-bowling option.

Lyon led the charge for the tourists, introduced in just the seventh over after captain Steve Smith sent the home side into bat, and finishing with 3-39 from his 10 overs.

Maxwell chipped in with the dismissal of Denesh Ramdin, his first wicket in eight ODIs, while rookie leg-spinner Zampa helped to clean up the tail, grabbing 3-16.

On a wicket that offered plenty of assistance, Lyon was delighted with the selection of a spin-heavy attack.

"It's about time I reckon," the man-of-the-match said with a smile, clearly quite happy to be back in green-and-gold and with some fellow spinners as company. "I get along with Zampa and 'Maxi' really well. We work really well together and we seem to bowl really well in tandem.

"It was exciting to play the first game with 'Zamps' and hopefully there's a big future for both of us.

"I think that's one of our biggest weapons - our communication. We're all really good mates, we all want to see each other do well.

"If we can have that open communication with each other and try and help each other better the team and get the right result for Australia, we're heading in the right direction."

Quick Single: Assured Lyon says Test form won't suffer

While the spin attack worked well on a slow surface at Providence Stadium, and should again against South Africa at the same venue on Wednesday morning (AEST), a spin-heavy bowling line-up is unlikely to be employed in most other places around the world, particularly Australia.

It means Lyon and Zampa are essentially vying for just one spot in the side, but the more experienced off-spinner was more than happy to heap praise on his spin twin after he ripped through the home side's lower-order.

"That's what good spinners do," Lyon said. "He played his role exceptionally.

"The way he goes about it, even at training, he's always trying to get better and it's exciting.

"For any young leg-spinner to come out and show his skills to the world on a big stage, on a turning pitch, it was great and pretty exciting."

Despite a near complete performance in the field - the home side lost their final seven wickets for just 46 runs before the Aussies chased down the meagre target with 24.2 overs to spare - Lyon was far from satisfied ahead of Australia's next match against the Proteas.

Quick Single: Lyon lauds Zampa's development

"As a bowling unit I think we pride ourselves on limiting extras," he said. "I think we let ourselves down (conceding 14), there was a bit of rust floating around.

"But it was a good workout. I thought we bowled pretty well together in partnerships.

"And we took our chances, so overall we're pretty happy with it.

"But we also know there's a lot more work to do in this tri-series. It's only one game. We're excited and we're looking forward to the next challenge."

West Indies skipper Jason Holder praised Australia's bowlers, but said the home side's batsmen needed to take responsibility for the collapse.

"There were quite a few soft dismissals," he said. "They challenged us in terms of building pressure well, but I don't think they got us with any spectacular balls per se.

"We just played some horrible shots at crucial stages of the game, which cost us wickets."