Australia coach Mickey Arthur heaped praise on man-of-the-match recipient Shane Watson following the all-rounder's devastating display during the team's opening World Twenty20 match on Wednesday.

Watson inspired Australia to a seven-wicket victory over Ireland in Colombo with bowling figures of 3-26 off four overs, which included the scalps of opening batsman William Porterfield (0), danger men Niall O'Brien (20) and Kevin O'Brien (35).

The 2011 Allan Border Medallist then smashed five boundaries and three sixes on his way to 51 off 30 deliveries.

"We spoke about setting tone and Shane does that," Arthur said.

"He bowls the first over and he is generally at the wicket at the start of our first innings. So he has that opportunity to set tone.

"We wanted to come hard, we wanted to start off really well and Shane delivered for us so I'm really happy with that."

Despite cruising to a convincing win, Arthur is refusing to get carried away given the tournament has just got underway.

"We spoke about winning seven games to get the ultimate prize and that's only one of the seven," the former Western Warriors coach said.

"But you always want a good a start and I think we got that.

"I think there are still areas we can improve on but I thought it was exactly what we wanted first up."

Next up for Australia is a showdown with fourth-ranked T20 nation the West Indies.

And Arthur is aware of the threat posed by the likes of emerging cricketer Sunil Narine and Chris Gayle.

"They hold a lot of dangers and a lot of potential game breakers," he said. "They've got some incredible batters who will strike the ball really hard."

"Narine we saw in the Caribbean was outstanding so that's going to be another challenge as to how we play him.

"And with Gayle back it just gives them so much explosive hitting power that we are going to have to be at the top of our game in order to win that one."

In terms of team selection for the upcoming game, Arthur said he wants to sustain momentum with a winning formula.

"The one thing we have got is a lot of flexibility and that is something we pride ourselves on when we selected the squad," he said.

"Stability though and continual selection is vitally important because it just gives the squad and the players the confidence to know they are the ones picked."