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Australia’s selectors are doing David Warner a disservice by not tapping him on the shoulder.
Warner’s record and his legacy as an all-time great of Australian cricket are diminishing by the day as he rages against the dying light of his career.
His third consecutive failure in as many innings in this India tour – 15 off 44 deliveries on day one of the second Test in Delhi – was painful to watch and for Warner as he copped a couple of nasty blows from India’s new-ball bowlers.
The selectors – chair George Bailey, Tony Dodemaide and coach Andrew McDonald – took a punt on the 36-year-old opener by including him in the touring squad despite poor returns on each of his previous tours in 2013 and ‘17.
And that was on the back of the worst stretch of form in his career – just one century, his career-saving double ton in Melbourne against South Africa in the Boxing Day Test, in his past 29 innings before this tour.
David Warner walks off after he was dismissed by Mohammed Shami. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
That stretch since 2020 now stands at 32 trips to the crease at 29.48, bringing his career average down from 48.94 to 45.57 and falling after a combined 16 runs from three tries in this series.
And when it comes to matches in India, he’s now down to 21.78 from 10 Tests with a high watermark of 71.
Test captain Pat Cummins gave qualified support for Warner prior to this match by saying “You saw at the Boxing Day Test when he puts pressure back on the opposition he’s pretty hard to bowl to”.
But he was putting no pressure on India’s opening duo on day one in Delhi. He was scoreless for the first half-hour before finally getting off the mark with an edge past slip from his 21st delivery.
He was then hit on the elbow by Mohammed Siraj and later on the helmet as he struggled to cope on an unexpectedly bouncy wicket.
As Dr Evil said, there’s nothing more pathetic than an ageing hipster. Not sure if he’s a cricket fan but there’s nothing sadder than a player who once dominated bowlers now being reduced to a walking wicket.
A punch-drunk Muhammad Ali was let down in his last few fights by his entourage telling him that he could still float like a butterfly and sting like a bee when both scenarios were no longer true.
“David Warner just looked as though he was a yard behind the ball, the way the feet were moving,” former Australia captain Allan Border said on Fox Cricket. “There were some good deliveries bowled but he’s looked better at the top of the order against quality bowling.
“He’s just really struggling at the moment to pick the ball up. The feet are not moving nearly as well as they used to, whether that’s a permanent problem or something he can get over quickly.”
Warner, known as “the Bull”, will be bullish about his chances of reversing his rapid decline in the next innings, the next Test, the next tour (even though long-time nemesis Stuart Broad will be awaiting on England’s seam-friendly wickets).
The selectors need to have an honest conversation with Warner and let him know that he can announce his retirement or they can announce that he’s been dropped.
With all-rounder Cameron Green due back for the third Test from his finger injury, one of the top six batters will have to go.
Matt Renshaw is the only other specialist opener in the touring party but judging on his lead-footed efforts for a duck and two in the first Test, bringing him in for Warner is fraught with danger.
The idea of elevating Travis Head to opener has been floated in recent days to give him a chance to find his feet against the seamers before the spinners come on.
Marnus Labuschagne could even go up a spot with Steve Smith rising to first drop – getting the best batters to the crease earlier than usual wouldn’t be the worst idea in Indian conditions even though they’ve both followed Warner in this innings by falling cheaply.
Labuschagne was beaten by a razor thin margin from his LBW review against Ravichandran Ashwin for 18 while Smith will be kicking himself and shadow batting non-stop for days after dangling his bat to a wide delivery from the same bowler late in the first session.
There has been plenty made about Australia’s occasional application of a “horses for courses” policy but Peter Handscomb underlined why he is considered a subcontinental specialist.
As he did in the first Test without converting either start – 31 or 6 – the Victorian right-hander looked settled at the crease as he compiled 72 from 142, left stranded by the tail.
After opener Usman Khawaja held the top order together with 81 before he threw away a hundred by reverse-sweeping to cover point, Handscomb did likewise with the lower order.
Handscomb, who scored two hundreds during his first stint in the Australian team – both at home against Pakistan in the 2016-17 summer – but the chance to procced to another triple-figure tally this time around was denied by the tailenders not putting up much resistance, apart from Pat Cummins contributing 33, in the first innings total of 263.
If nothing else, Handscomb has assured he will get another run in the third Test and with Cameron Green all but certain to return to the No.6 spot, it means he will go up a notch. That means Travis Head will either get punted again after his hit-and-miss 12 or potentially hold his spot if Warner gets dumped and the South Australian survives as an opener.
Longer term, he could keep his nose in front of Head (where it should always be) for the World Test Championship final at The Oval – assuming Australia still make it – and the Ashes tour.
At 31, he’s at the peak of his powers after dominating at Sheffield Shield level this summer and this tour could be the springboard to a lengthier second phase of his Test career.
Matt Kuhnemann became Australia’s 466th men’s Test cricketer with the tourists taking a gamble with a rare three-spinner bowling attack for the crucial clash with India at Delhi.
Just like Todd Murphy in Nagpur last week, he had a bat before he bowled on his first day as a Test cricketer and despite coming in at No.11, did reasonably well to eke out six runs in a 12-ball stay to help Handscomb add 17 for the last wicket.
And when the Aussies took the field he didn’t have time to get nervous waiting to bowl with the debutant given the honour of sharing the new ball with Pat Cummins.
He went perilously close to making a breakthrough in his first over when his fifth delivery kept low and skidded just past KL Rahul’s outside edge and the off stump.
The left-arm orthodox spinner only joined the 18-man touring squad earlier this week after fellow Queenslander Mitchell Swepson returned home for the birth of his first child and was presented with his baggy green cap in a pre-match ceremony by another state teammate, Marnus Labuschagne.
Matthew Kuhnemann is congratulated after receiving his baggy green cap. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Left-arm quick Mitchell Starc and all-rounder Cameron Green failed in their bid to make a return from finger injuries while fellow quick Josh Hazlewood (Achilles) was also left out.
Scott Boland, who bowled well without taking a wicket in Nagpur, made way for Kuhnemann.
“The middle [of the pitch] looks like it’s got a little bit of grass but it’s pretty bare at both ends so I’m guessing there will be a bit of turn there so it’ll be a good challenge for our team,” Cummins said after calling correctly at the toss.
“We’ve all lost games before and had to bounce back so that’s the challenge for the group this week. It has been a really good preparation, everyone’s raring to go.”
Kuhnemann has come from the clouds to overtake fellow left-armer Ashton Agar in the pecking order but the 26-year-old has a solid record at Shield level with 35 wickets from 13 matches at 34.8 and he got a taste of international cricket last year in July when he played four ODIs on the tour of Sri Lanka.
“We feel the pitch here, the conditions, that spin will dominate the game once again and from what we understand this pitch has been used three times already this year and there’s already substantial cracking in the areas where most of the game is going to be played,” selector Tony Dodemaide told reporters after the team was announced.
“Heady does offer quite a valuable option as a fifth bowler and that’s where we felt we were stretched in parts of the game in Nagpur and that fifth bowling option is something that we value, albeit another spinner.”
Australia have not gone into a Test with three frontline spinners since the tour of Bangladesh six years ago when Lyon, Agar and Steve O’Keefe teamed up with all-rounder Glenn Maxwell also chiming in with his offies.
India made just one change with middle-order batter Shreyas Iyer returning from a back injury to replace Suryakumar Yadav at No.5 for Cheteshwar Pujara’s 100th Test.
The Indians have not lost at Arun Jaitley Stadium since 1987 – only Aussie openers David Warner and Usman Khawaja were alive from this week’s teams when the home side last tasted defeat in Delhi against Viv Richards’ all-conquering West Indies.
Australia’s selectors have copped plenty of criticism for their decision to include Starc and Green in the touring party when they will only be available to play in the final two Tests.
Starc and Green, who both suffered finger injuries in the Boxing Day Test win over South Africa, were ruled out of making a comeback in game two of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in Delhi.
“We don’t have the seam bowling option of Cam on the table quite yet,” Dodemaide told reporters prior to day one’s play. “We’re very confident and hope he’s continuing to progress and we expect him to be available for the third Test in Indore.
“We brought them (Green and Starc) over to India in the expectation they’d be available. Starc and Greeny didn’t quite come up for this one, but we fully expect them to be online for the third one.”
The third Test gets underway at Indore on March 1 before the series finale at Ahmedabad on March 9.