‘He’s hitting them well in the nets’ up there with ‘coach has full support of the board’ as Warner faces crunch time

Batters should cringe if ever they hear a selector say they’re hitting them well in the nets. 

It’s become almost the inevitable precursor to a much tougher conversation about why you will no longer be chosen in the side. 

“He’s hitting them well in the nets” is now up there with “the coach has the full support of the board” in footyspeak for its ominous subtext. 

Steve Smith enthused about David Warner after his sub-par series against the West Indies: “I watched him in the nets. He was really sharp and he was batting well.”

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That didn’t translate to success at the Gabba against the South Africans with Warner out for a golden duck and three. In the five deliveries Kagiso Rabada sent down to Warner, he got him out twice. 

(Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

Here’s Smith this time last year talking about underperforming opener Marcus Harris as calls grew louder for Usman Khawaja to take his place. 

“Harris is batting well in the nets, so he needs to not overthink it and trust the process and he can turn it around.”

He was dropped two Tests later. 

Performing well in the nets with little pressure on is a whole different story to being out in the middle when one error can mean the end of an innings or effectively a career. 

NBA megastar Shaquille O’Neal was one of the worst free throw shooters of all time, in games. When he practised them at training, his percentage shot up but when it came time to step to the stripe in games, he managed a paltry 52.7% for his career.

He likened it to the difference between “playing craps at your house with your boys” and then going to a casino to do the same.

Ricky Ponting. (Photo by James Knowler/Getty Images)

In cricket terms, Shaq’s tale tells us that it’s nice to strike the ball well in the nets when you can hit the ball anywhere and tell yourself a fielder didn’t catch it. But out in the middle there are 11 pairs of hands waiting to pounce on any chance and when you’re out, you’re out. 

Sometimes it’s reluctant selectors and not the player who is the root of the problem.

Record-breaking former Australian captain Ricky Ponting in his autobiography recalled how he knew his time was up but the selectors and his successor as captain, Michael Clarke, were telling him otherwise.

Their argument … he was “still hitting them well in the nets”.

“John Inverarity contacted me not long after we landed, to say that he’d been speaking to Pup and that Pup said he didn’t want me to go, argued that I was still hitting them well in the nets and the runs would come, that the team needed my experience and the Ashes wasn’t that far away. He almost swayed me.”

Have you ever heard anyone describe someone as not hitting them well in the nets? Now that’s a newsworthy angle.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan is a polarising figure among fans with his Twitter rants these days but at least he had the self-awareness as a player to know what was what.

He was never as good in the limited-overs format compared to his Test returns and during the 2007 2007 World Cup in the Windies he hit the nail on the head on the dangers of believing too much in practice form.

“I have to keep the basics right. I have been batting well in the nets but that counts for nothing,” he said.

After a disappointing Cup campaign, he quit the one-day arena, recognising the writing was on the wall.

George Bailey. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

Warner enters his 100th Test on Boxing Day in a similar situation – perform or face the prospect of calling time, at least in the five-day format, on his international career.

With the first Test ending so quickly, he has three extra days in between matches to finetune his game but that extra time in the nets can only do so much irrespective of how well you’re hitting them.

Bailey gave no indication that the selectors were ready to have the seemingly inevitable tough conversation with Warner.

‘‘I think there’s runs around the corner for him,’’ Bailey told reporters on Monday. ‘‘He’s moving well. He’s catching well. When people start to go – for want of a better way to put it – it’s the catching that goes, the movement goes.

“He’s still an outstanding fielder, still fit as a fiddle. I think no doubt, and David would be the first to say this, he’d like a few more runs and to be contributing a bit more knowing the importance of that role at the top of the order. But I have full confidence that will come.

‘‘The way Davey plays, I don’t think that’s going to be replaced (when he finishes in Test cricket). The way he’s taken the game on, moved the game forward, the record he has, that’s a challenge that every team faces when you remove someone who in many respects has changed the way the game is played.

‘‘I don’t think we’ll be looking to replace David Warner. But I think we’ve got some strong candidates waiting in the wings to bat at the top of the order for Australia.’’

(Photo by Chris Hyde – CA/Cricket Australia via Getty Images)

Warner can expect no favours from Rabada when he takes the new ball in Melbourne.

When asked at a Proteas media conference whether he had Warner’s measure, he responded with “no comment” before being prompted about whether he had a specific strategy for his latest batting bunny.

“We do have plans. I mean, it wouldn’t be a plan if I gave it away,” he said.

“But generally, cricket is a simple game. The good old cliche type of the top of off and the odd bouncer. But the with the amount of analysis these days, there are specific plans for certain players, most definitely. But obviously I can’t tell you about that.”