The senior-most Australian cricketers in the form of former skipper Steven Smith and David Warner have joined the training camp in Brisbane, in a bid to prepare themselves for the upcoming ICC World Cup 2019.
The duo is back in the fold after facing a sanction from Cricket Australia (CA) in the wake up of the ball-tampering saga, last year (March) in South Africa.
Smith, who recently represented Rajasthan Royals (RR), has been middling the ball well in the nets. During his stay in India, Smith has delivered goods for Royals once he got appointed as a skipper.
Smith keeping things simple:
During a gruelling session in nets, Smith took on spin pair; Nathan Lyon and Adam Zampa before facing the thunderbolts from Mitchell Starc.
Besides, Michael Neser and Sean Abbott had also bowled at Smith.
Some familiar mannerisms as Steve Smith returns to the nets at Australia’s World Cup camp pic.twitter.com/zzPIJ1gCaA
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) May 5, 2019
On the other side, Warner, who has been in the form of his life, made a major statement by scoring 692 runs in 12 IPL matches for Rajasthan Royals (SRH).
The 32-year-old Warner is eager to continue his domination. His teammate and all-rounder Glenn Maxwell has hailed southpaw’s consistency.
“You look at (Warner’s) stats over there (in India) and what he has done for Hyderabad, I think he has scored more than 500 runs every time he has been over there, which is amazing consistency,” Maxwell told CA digital.
Earlier, head coach Justin Langer has expressed happiness to see their star players making it to the squad.
Smith & Warner back on deck at Aussie training in Brisbane today pic.twitter.com/HFvqqZbBJ7
— cricket.com.au (@cricketcomau) May 5, 2019
Warner is raring to go with Australia set to face Afghanistan on June 1st at the Bristol County Ground.
Maxwell on the duo:
Pertinently, Smith and Warner are likely to partake in the three warm-up fixtures against New Zealand, starting on Monday (May 6). While lauding them as ‘superstars’, Maxwell revealed both were unwell, of late.
He added, there will be no issues on seeing them back into the fold.
“I assume (they will play on Monday. They have been sick the last couple of days so, hopefully, they are up and running. And they are both superstars. I watched both of them go about it (in IPL) and they were both absolutely brilliant over there. There will be no worries about them coming back into the team,” Maxwell concluded.
Allan Border Field in Brisbane will host all three fixtures. With the world’s best batsmen all set to make a mark, Australian camp has gleefully embraced the duo. Following the humiliation, both players are looking forward to clear their tainted image.