Former Australia pace spearhead Mitchell Johnson has questioned David Warner’s place in Australia’s Test playing eleven following his latest failures in red-ball cricket.
The left-handed batsman has been facing severe criticism after failing twice in the recently-concluded first Test against Team India at the VCA Stadium in Nagpur. Warner arrived in India on the back of a string of poor performances in Tests.
He began the home season before arriving in India under huge pressure as calls grew to drop him from the Test team. Except the double-century against South Africa in the Boxing Day Test, Warner has not done anything considerable in Tests in the last couple of years.
Since December 2021, he scored only two fifties in Tests before registering the double ton. And his poor start in India has only made things worse for him. The twin failures in the first Test in Nagpur has also extended his poor record in Tests in India where he averages just 22. In Nagpur, he was out for 1 and 10 as India thrashed Australia by an innings and 132 runs.
Mitchell Johnson questions David Warner’s place:
With David Warner’s poor display in Tests continuing, his former teammate Mitchell Johnson has questioned his place in the team. Writing in his column for the The West Australian after the first Test, Mitchell Johnson opined that the underperforming opener should be dropped for the second Test.
“I would drop David Warner, elevate Matthew Renshaw to open and bring Travis Head into the middle order,” Mitchell Johnson wrote.
Travis Head was sensationally dropped from the playing eleven for the Nagpur Test because of his poor record in Asia. The left-handed batsman has arrived in India on the back of a stunning home summer where he scored more than 500 runs at an average of over 95 in Tests.
Questioning the treatment meted out to Head, Mitchell Johnson pointed out that Warner should have suffered the same fate because of his poor record in India.
“If it’s about a horses for courses policy based on previous form in the subcontinent, why didn’t that apply to Warner?,” Johnson wrote.
“That’s where it got murky for me,” he added.
The second Test between India and Australia is set to get underway in less than a week’s time. The match is scheduled to begin on Thursday (February 17) in Delhi.
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