It’s hardly breaking news that Australian opener David Warner is hanging onto his position by a fingernail, but you know things aren’t going well when former players are calling for your sacking mid-Test even if your team wins.
That was the interesting call from former fast bowler Jason Gillespie — a respected figure not known for hyperbole — in his Daily Mail column during the Headingley Test.
“Personally, I am a bit torn over what Australia should do,” Gillespie wrote. “Part of me thinks they should maybe make a change if Australia seal the series by winning this Test. That way, they are moving forwards and they get to take a look at someone else. For me, that would mean Matt Renshaw coming in, rather than reshuffling the order.”
David Warner is struggling to keep his place in the Australian team.Credit: Getty
After suffering a dramatic three-wicket loss to England, whose Bazball theorems finally bore fruit, Australia can’t afford themselves the luxury of thinking about the future because the present requires immediate attention.
How much longer can Australia persist with Warner?
Of all the decisions Pat Cummins has faced as captain, what to do with his veteran opener heading into the critical fourth Test at Old Trafford from July 19 is his trickiest.
The price of Sydney rentals might be through the roof but Stuart Broad is living rent-free in Warner’s head.
It’s not entirely his call, of course. That belongs to the selection panel of chairman George Bailey, coach Andrew McDonald and former player Tony Dodemaide.
Yet this team is undeniably Cummins’ and you’d imagine his input will have significant sway in whether Warner’s 12-year Test career comes to an end.
Warner’s returns in three Tests so far look like bingo numbers: 9, 36, 66, 25, 4 and 1. Not great.
The price of Sydney rentals might be through the roof but Stuart Broad is living rent-free in Warner’s head and you can’t imagine it will improve in the days leading up to the fourth Test. It was in Manchester four years ago where Broad dismissed him for a duck in both innings, although Australia won the Test by 185 runs.
Cummins’ comments after the Headingley defeat on Monday morning were hardly a glowing endorsement: “We’ll keep all our options open. We’ve got nine or 10 days now, so we’ll take a deep breath.”
Keeping our options open. It’s like saying the coach has the full support of the board.
When Cummins and the selectors exhale, it will be interesting to see where they land. Like Gillespie, I’d imagine they’re also torn.
There’s a terribly well-worn adage that it is harder to get dropped from the Australian Test team than it is to get into it. Warner’s critics have been rolling that line out for months.
Warner has been spared to date because of the lack of genuine options to replace him.
Marcus Harris is in this Ashes squad as a back-up batsman, but surely it would be too risky parachuting him into the top of the order in Manchester when he has played no cricket outside the nets on this tour.
As Gillespie suggested, Renshaw is the future at 27, and he made plenty of first-class runs last summer to suggest his recall will come eventually, but was released from the squad to play some first-class cricket.
Perhaps the answer is to fight Bazball fire with Bazball fire, as it were, and if that’s the case Australia could play two all-rounders and open with one of them.
Is there a place in Australia’s team for both Mitchell Marsh (pictured) and Cameron Green?Credit: Getty Images
This series is being played at breakneck speed, even if they have been decided on the fifth day twice and then the fourth. There hasn’t really been a docile session except for rain delays.
Mitchell Marsh’s Bazball-ish 118 runs from as many balls — the second-fastest century from an Australian in England in Test history — suggests he’s tailor-made for the way things are playing out.
Australia missed injured all-rounder Cameron Green’s bowling at Headingley but will be ready for Old Trafford.
Is there a place for both him and Marsh? And could one of them open?
Former Australian captain Michael Clarke mused on Sky Sports Radio on Monday morning that one of them could, most likely Marsh. It was hardly an endorsement of Warner, a former teammate.
Another option is Travis Head, who opened the batting with relative aplomb in the second innings of the Delhi Test in February after Warner suffered concussion in the first.
The confidence with which Head bats suggests he could handle the move — but would the selectors want to make such a radical change 2-1 up?
Which brings us back to Warner, who has been playing a different role throughout this series.
Instead of being the alpha male, he’s been prepared to occupy the crease, see off the new ball, and let Usman Khawaja set up the innings.
Of course, he needs to make more runs but, in the first two Tests, his contributions were considered invaluable by the rest of the Australian team.
Warner flagged his intentions before this series: he wants to go out in a blaze of glory before his home crowd in the Sydney Test next summer. That might be a stretch.
But in a series this close, and given Australia’s position, and considering his experience, Warner deserves to bat out this series.
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