Australia have reportedly decided the replacement for David Warner ahead of their upcoming two-match Test series against West Indies. The left-handed batsman brought down curtains on his illustrious Test career after the conclusion of the three-match series against Pakistan last week.
He finished his Test career as Australia’s most prolific opener in Tests. The veteran opener played 112 Tests and scored 8786 runs at an average of 44.59 including 26 hundreds and 37 fifties. He has also scored a triple century in Tests. Replacing a player of his stature is definitely not an easy task for any team in the world and Australia have also found it very challenging so far.
While David Warner had revealed his retirement plans last year, Australia are yet to finalise his replacement. As per reports, the likes of Cameron Bancroft, Matt Renshaw, Marcus Harris as well as Travis Head, Cameron Green and Marnus Labuschagne are in contention to replace the retired great at the top of the batting order.
Australia finalise David Warner’s replacement:
While only time will tell who opens the innings alongside Usman Khawaja in the upcoming Test series against West Indies, Australia have decided to promote Steve Smith as an opener, the Herald Sun reports. The report comes just days after Smith expressed his desire to move to the top of the order as he looks to regain his best form in Tests.
The report further added that Smith’s promotion could make room for Green’s inclusion in the Test team. Green lost his place in the playing eleven to Mitchell Marsh last year and the latter has cemented his place in the team. Green has the experience of batting at no.4 and could be tried out at that position against West Indies.
Last week, Australia Test captain Pat Cummins had stated that he would not like to disrupt his team’s settled middle-order, saying: “I’m pretty happy with [Smith’s] output at No. 4,” Cummins said. “Obviously Marnus [Labuschagne], Smudge [Smith], Trav [Head] and [Mitchell] Marsh have been pretty impressive at Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6. So first instinct isn’t probably to disrupt that.”
Possible Australia XI for first Test against West Indies:
Usman Khawaja
Steve Smith
Marnus Labuschagne
Cameron Green
Travis Head
Mitch Marsh
Alex Carey (wk)
Mitchell Starc
Pat Cummins (c)
Nathan Lyon
Josh Hazlewood
