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Apr 18, 2024

David Warner’s bid for a retirement series will hinge on red ball form

David Warner wants the chance to farewell Test cricket on home turf but the ageing star has run out of chances to impress selectors. David Warner’s performance at this year’s World Cup is unlikely to

David Warner wants the chance to farewell Test cricket on home turf but the ageing star has run out of chances to impress selectors.

David Warner’s performance at this year’s World Cup is unlikely to have any bearing on whether he gets selected for a farewell home Test series against Pakistan.

Warner, 36, posted 285 runs at 28.5 across the Ashes, and despite a second innings half-century in the run chase at The Oval was unable to break through for a maiden Test ton on English soil.

The veteran opener flagged before the series that he would seek to retire from Test cricket after his home SCG Test against Pakistan in January, but conceded it was selection-dependent.

While he was significantly better than he had been four years earlier in the UK, Warner still has just one Test century in the past three years.

Australia does not play another Test until the Pakistan series begins in December with attention turning to the one-day World Cup in India across October and November.

However Australian coach Andrew McDonald – also a national selector – said that he viewed the three formats as largely separate and that Warner like all players would be judged primarily on their red-ball output.

“I think we like to split the formats. I think, you perform in T20, does that get you a look in one-day cricket? Maybe, maybe not. Then the same from one-day internationals with the format into Test cricket? Yeah, there can be some crossover depending on what you need at certain times,” McDonald said.

“But yeah, we’ll assess each format on its own. And Dave was picked in the last Test match here. And I thought that the way he went about it, after a certain period of time was outstanding, and he’s always going to have some sort of speculation around what he’s doing and where he’s heading. But there’s a long time before that first Test match in Australia in Perth.”

With a hectic schedule still to come, including a white-ball tour of South Africa and both an ODI and T20 World Cup across the next year, McDonald said Australia would look to draw from a wide group of players.

“As many hands on deck with the schedule that we have is critical. So yeah, we’re not in any rush to make any key decisions around key personnel for any format and we feel as though everyone that played a part in the series, performed their role and to some degree at certain times.”

While Mitch Marsh displaced Cameron Green in the all-rounder spot during the Ashes, McDonald said Green was still very much in the Aussies’ Test plans.

“I think Mitch Marsh took his opportunity at the right time and the way he played he put immense pressure on the opposition bowling. Cameron Green is an integral part of Australian cricket moving forward so we will have some decisions to make during the home summer.

“We see both having big futures in all three formats for Australian cricket.”

McDonald also dismissed suggestions that wicketkeeper Alex Carey’s decline across the back half of the tour could be linked to the fallout from the Lord’s stumping controversy.

“I wouldn’t join the dots to what happened at Lord’s, to his potential performance drop,” McDonald said.

“I think the opponents across a five-match series go through the way they work out an opponent.

“I think his keeping .. you can’t sit there and say his keeping’s at a high level and then say his performance dropped off.

“He missed probably one opportunity that will be highlighted this game with Harry Brook, and those things can happen. He got a little bit wrong-footed and that’s just an error.

“But I thought the start of his Test career has been nothing short of fantastic with the gloves, and yeah he didn’t score the runs he would have liked but there’s a few others in the changeroom that are probably in the same boat.”

The coach also refused to blame the controversial change of ball during the 37th over of Australia’s run chase at The Oval for the side’s defeat.

“I’ve never seen tactics shift so dramatically on the back of a decision,” McDonald said.

“Went from catchers in front of the wicket to behind the wicket, and there’s no doubt in some ways changed the shape of the game and the tactics within the game.

“So I will say that ball change did have a significant bearing on the tactics, the way that England went about it.

“But in saying that, I think we still should have been able to navigate that. There were two clumps where we lost 3-30 and 5-50, and that’s part of us owning it. The umpires are out there to make a decision and they had a box of balls to choose from, and they made the best decision at that time from what they saw was there.”

Accepting that Australia had fallen short of its goal of winning the series outright, McDonald said it had been an engrossing Ashes series and also proposed that all Test series be played over a minimum of three matches to help protect the format.

Daniel Cherny is a Melbourne sportswriter, focusing on AFL and cricket. Having started his career at Back Page Lead, Daniel spent eight years at The Age, during which time he covered Australian Test cricket tours of Bangladesh and the UAE, as well as the 2016 Rio Olympics. He has been recognised for both his AFL and cricket writing, including winning the Clinton Grybas Rising Star Award at the 2019 Australian Football Media Association Awards. He is also a compulsive Simpsons quoter.

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