Former Australian pacer Glenn McGrath feels that vultures are circling the struggling Australian opener David Warner over his poor form in the ongoing Ashes series. The 36-year-old was dismissed for the third consecutive time of Chris Woakes’ bowling in the 1st innings of the 5th test on Thursday.
The Australian opener had mixed series so far in England, as he failed to capitalize on the good starts to the innings. Stuart Broad has been David Warner’s nemesis in Test cricket as the pacer had dismissed the southpaw 17 times in longer format of the game.
Speaking to the SEN, Glenn McGrath raised his concern regarding David Warner’s form in the ongoing test series, as he was dismissed in the 1st innings after being set in the middle and believes that they are a lot of pressure on him to perform for the team and said that he haven’t produced any tall scores in red-ball cricket following his double century against South Africa.
“He looked OK (in the first innings), but then got out again, I know he came out the other day and said he wanted to play it to the end of next summer. But I think the pressure is on him, the vultures are circling. Unless he comes out in the second dig and produces a big score, I think he might struggle.”
“Unfortunately, he‘s got a lot of starts this series and then just gets out, I‘m not sure what’s there, the timing is not quite there. He had that big innings back in Australia on Boxing Day where he got the 200, but there hasn’t been a sort of real big score before or after that for quite some time,” Glenn McGrath said.
The 36-year-old was in rousing form as he scored a brilliant double ton against South Africa in Melbourne in December 2022 but has scored only 225 runs for Australia in nine innings. Warner has found English conditions particularly testing in the past and compiled only 95 runs in 10 innings during the 2019 Ashes series.
David Warner’s Probably Feeling The Pressure – Glenn McGrath
Glenn McGrath feels that Australian veteran David Warner is feeling the pressure to retain his spot in the team but could not score runs for the team and the left-handed opener has not managed to live up to the reputation in Tests in the last couple of years as he could make an impact for his team in the longer format of the game.
“He‘s probably feeling the pressure, he still talks it up and says he’s going fine and this and that, but he’s got to put the runs on the board unfortunately,” Glenn McGrath concluded.
The Australian team has done exceedingly well on England soil so far, as they showed a lot of composure to play the high-octane games in England despite David Warner’s inconsistent form in the ongoing test series and the Baggy Green will look to seal the series in Oval after dominating performance in the Day 1 of the game.