Border-Gavaskar Trophy: ‘I think the pressure is on all the top order’: Warner on Australian batsmen in the series | Cricket News
Even though Australia won the second Pink Ball Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at Adelaide, courtesy fine bowling Mitchell Starc and a century Travis Head, the spotlight has been on Australian batsmen too. With only one century and one half-century in two Test matches coming from Australian batsmen, former Australian opener David Warner believes that the pressure is piling on the batsmen. With opener Usman Khawaja managing only 34 runs in four innings in the series, Warner wants the Aussie top six to contribute big in the rest of the series.
“I think the pressure is on all the top order, not just ‘Uzzie’. Travis came out and counterpunched and scored a brilliant hundred, and we know he’s capable of doing it. But it’s everyone else around supporting that. It’s not just one player in particular, it’s the top six scoring bulk runs and making sure you’re giving rest to the fast bowlers. It was a fast-paced Test in the first game, but this last one was Mitchell Starc at his best as usual with the pink ball. Come Brisbane, we need to see some big runs from the top order,” Warner told Fox Sports.
With Travis Head leading the top run-getter l in the series with a total of 240 runs including the knock of 140 at Adelaide, none of the Australian batsmen have crossed the 100-mark in the series. Wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey is the next best Australian batsman on the l at the seventh spot with a total of 72 runs followed Marnus Labuschagne with a total of 69 runs. Opener Nathan McSweeney too has managed only 59 runs in four innings while Steve Smith’s disastrous form has continued with him managing only 19 runs in four innings. Warned believes that McSweeney has got the right temperament for the opener’s role and praised his knock of 39 in the first innings at Adelaide. “He’s had four of probably the five hardest jobs when it comes to an opening batsman, and I think he’s handled it well. We saw glimpses the other day of the intent that you show when you’re scoring, and there are a lot of question marks around why they chose him, but the glimpses that you’ve seen, we now know why. He’s got a good temperament, I like the way he sets up, and I think he’s got a good future ahead of him,” added Warner.
The former opener also praised Indian bowlers and sees them doing good if they bowl well in partnerships. “It’s just that this bowling attack from India is relentless if they bowl in partnerships. If they bowl like they did the other day with just (Jasprit) Bumrah, hopefully the boys can score some big runs against them,” said Warner.
