David Warner has acknowledged that after this year, he doesn’t see himself continuing to play Test cricket for Australia. Warner, who had scored a stunning 50 in the first innings of the second Ashes Test, utterly failed against Stuart Broad in both innings of the third game. In his Test career, Broad has now eliminated Warner 17 times. Nasser Hussain, a former English cricketer, believes that Australia should remain with Warner for the fourth Test in Manchester despite his performance.
Pat Cummins, the visiting captain, had earlier said that all options were on the table for the opening position and that he would not bench Warner despite his struggles. However, Hussain believes that removing the top left-handed hitter from the starting lineup will put the Australians in a difficult situation because they lack a suitable backup for this position. The Ben Stokes-led team triumphed by three wickets in the Headingley Test after falling behind 2-0 in the five-game series.
“David Warner’s fate is in question. Hussain said to Sky Sports, “It is a really tough situation.”Now that it’s a live game, I think they need and have to play Warner,” he continued. “I think if they’d won here [the third Test at Headingley] and they had won the Ashes, it would have been a time to move on from David Warner.
What alternatives does Pat Cummins have now that he has dropped David Warner?
It’s interesting to note that the 36-year-old also made a suggestion that he would end his Test career after the Pakistan series at his home stadium in Sydney the following year. In light of the former English captain’s opinions, if Australia decides to bench Warner, they will have to switch Marnus Labuschagne’s opening position or insert Mitchell Marsh at the top of the order, but doing so will undoubtedly require changes.
Although the visiting team features players who have opened at the Test level on the roster, such as Marcus Harris or Matthew Renshaw,. They probably won’t take the chance of dropping the seasoned batter, though.
“My point is that you could play Warner and not use Mitchell Marsh and Cameron Green [all-rounders], but then who opens?”To allow him to accomplish it, you might need to transfer Labuschagne or perhaps Marsh when playing white-ball cricket. It’s a different difficulty, though.Opening in Test Match Cricket is a specialized position. They’ll have to consider carefully who bats first at Old Trafford, the former English cricketer said.
After three Tests in the Ashes in 2023, it’s interesting to note that the star Australian opener is currently his team’s lowest-scoring batsman. Warner has a 25.33 batting average over 33 innings in England, where he has previously struggled. It will be intriguing to watch if the Australians take the chance of benching their star batter or stick with the same opening pair of Travis Head and Warner in the fourth Test.
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