Australia have not found a replacement for Warner yet in Tests, and it’s not necessary the gap will be filled soon
Andrew McGlashan20-Dec-20241:33
Cummins: ‘Top three is a really hard place to bat’
A year that started with David Warner playing his final Test will draw to a close with Australia still searching for his long-term replacement, and a reality dawning that it might be sooner rather than later that they need another new opener as well.Rohit Sharma batted away suggestions that India had over-celebrated avoiding the follow-on at the Gabba and Pat Cummins said “can’t say I’ve ever been scared of momentum” when asked if the visitors took more from how that Test finished, but it feels like Australia have blinked first ahead of the crunch encounter at the MCG.Australia’s opening batting position was the major talking point heading into the series and whoever is selected in the role on Boxing Day – Sam Konstas is favourite but it may not be him – will mean that three players have had the job alongside Usman Khawaja, himself desperately short of runs this year, since the middle of January.Related
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Australia tried to manufacture openers out of Steven Smith and Nathan McSweeney with both being aborted. Josh Inglis has never opened in first-class cricket. Beau Webster has done it seven times, and scored 136 against New South Wales, but not since 2019. The door isn’t completely shut on someone else moving up.Konstas is a specialist opener and may yet prove to be the answer – it has felt like an inevitable path to international cricket and plenty of good judges have already anointed him – but the selectors didn’t think he was ready a month ago. He has, however, taken his opportunity to keep his name in lights in the last few weeks with a century for the Prime Minister’s XI against the Indians (minus Jasprit Bumrah), 88 against a good Western Australia attack and a dashing BBL debut, although caution needs to be used when assessing the latter.”What I can say is Sam has a self-confidence you don’t see in very many,” Sydney Thunder coach Trevor Bayliss said this week. “I’ve only seen it in a few over the years, and all of those players were outstanding Test players and international players, guys like [Michael] Clarke and [Brad] Haddin, Warner and Smith.”This decision will be picked apart a few days after former Australia coach Darren Lehmann said chair of selectors George Bailey was too close to the players and couldn’t make hard decisions. But it feels McSweeney, who had not opened before this season, has had the rough end of the deal having come up against Bumrah who is putting together one of the great series.His axing has come two Tests after his 39 in the first innings in Adelaide was lauded by team-mates as having been key in helping set up victory when he and Marnus Labuschagne survived the first evening under lights. He also came through a tricky opening day at the Gabba in the 13 overs sent down before the rain. However, perhaps crucially to his ambitions, he could not go on with either innings on the second day.1:37
Clarke: Everyone wants to see Rohit back to his confident self
Whoever gets the nod at the MCG is effectively being asked to do something no one else in that position has been able to manage: keep out, and score runs off, Bumrah.There has been much talk of the success of enabling Travis Head to come in after the 30-over mark in the first innings of the last two Tests when he has flayed thrilling centuries, but today’s decision appears to signal a change of tact from purely soaking up deliveries. It’s unlikely to signal a switch to something close to Bazball, but perhaps Ronball is going to make a comeback. Bailey stressed the importance of a left-hander opening, so the similarities between McSweeney and Labuschagne in the top three may have proved too great for not enough output.While McSweeney is the one to have paid the price, the sense is that plenty of the top are now on notice. “If you look more broadly I don’t necessarily the top six as quite functioned to the level that we need in this series as a whole,” Bailey said.Head is flying and Smith’s century was very timely, but Khawaja, Labuschagne and, lower down, Mitchell Marsh have made 214 runs in the series between them at 14.26. All three have credit in the bank, but it will be starting to run low.It is true that the evidence backs up what is becoming a well-worn trope about batting having become harder in Australia since the altered Kookaburra was introduced, combined with more grass being left on pitches – the “perfect storm” as Smith termed it after his century – but KL Rahul has shown that it is possible to make runs as an opener in the first innings, while Yashasvi Jaiswal had to get through the new ball before he could compile 161 in Perth.Amid all this, regardless of what happens in the final two Tests against India – and if Australia don’t regain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy it will lead to a lot more questions being asked – there is likely to be plenty more movement at the top of the order in the next 12 months. Head is a good chance of opening in Sri Lanka, which is admittedly a very conditions-based call, and even if Khawaja gets his wish of finishing at next summer’s Ashes, it means we’ll be back here having another debate on replacements this time next year.Warner was joking when he said his phone was always on before this series began but, wherever anyone stands in their views of him, there can be no doubt the size of the task to filling those shoes. In a few days it will be someone else’s turn. Bumrah will be waiting.
