Australia opener David Warner has been flown back home after being ruled out from the remaining 2 Tests of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to an elbow fracture. He will recover at his home in Sydney and is expected to return to India for the 3-ODI series, starting March 17.
Warner sustained a hairline fracture in his left elbow after copping a blow from Mohammed Siraj during the first innings of the second Test in Delhi.
A couple of overs later, the left-hander was hit on the helmet and later suffered delayed concussion symptoms and was subbed out of the Test match. Travis Head opened the batting in the second innings while Matt Renshaw came in as Warner’s concussion substitute and batted in the middle-order.
David Warner had a forgettable two Test matches, managing scores of 1, 10, and 15, and looked completely clueless in all three innings in the middle, as Australia have conceded a trail of 2-0 in the series.
This might just be a blessing in disguise for Australia. For, David Warner is too big a player to be dropped from the XI mid-series, and now his ruling out might just strengthen Australia in terms of having perhaps better batter of spin.
Here are 3 players who Australia can include in the XI to replace David Warner:
Cameron Green
If Cameron Green is fit – which is likely and what Australia are desperately hoping for – then the all-rounder will walk into Australia’s XI replacing Warner straightaway.
Travis Head, who opened in the second innings in Delhi and was Australia’s top-scorer with 43 runs, is likely to open in the third Test in Indore. Australia coach Andrew McDonald has already opined that Head is suited well to open in these conditions.
Cameron Green, who is recovering from a finger injury, was close to being selected in the second Test. Now with a 10-day break, he is expected to be fit and also started facing pacers in the nets.
Green’s inclusion for the third Test will bolster Australia’s bowling as then he’d be their second pacer alongside Cummins. In his last Test, against South Africa, Green took a five-wicket haul; though in completely different home conditions than the Indian conditions, that would have filled him with more confidence regarding his bowling.
With the bat, Green averages 35 in 18 Tests. He was impressive as a batsman last year on the tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Matt Renshaw
If Cameron Green is still not fit in time for the Indore Test, then Australia have Matt Renshaw as the one just slotting in the XI on the namesheet in place of Warner. Renshaw has already played 3 innings on two Tests – he started in Nagpur ahead of Travis Head, and scored 0 and 2; in Delhi, he came in Warner’s concussion substitute, and score 2 runs.
While Renshaw has had even poor scores than Warner so far, it is not to forget that Australia had initially picked him up in the Nagpur Test over Head because they believe Renshaw is a better batsman of spin.
So while Head is likely to open in place of Warner, Renshaw might get another Test match in the middle-order to vindicate some of the management’s decision.
Ashton Agar
Ashton Agar’s confidence might already have been dented when Australia called-up Matthew Kuhnemann from home and played him in the second Test while Agar was in the squad from the start.
However, the team management now can use Agar, as a bowling all-rounder. And, Agar can bat; he’s no mug with the bat in hand; anyway, he perhaps wouldn’t do much worse than what Warner did.
In 64 first-class matches, Agar has an average of 28 with the bat – not bad for a bowling all-rounder – and has picked up 75 wickets. To see what Travis Head did as an opener in the Delhi Test while playing attacking cricket, Australia might just throw Agar in in Indore and tell him to play his shots in order to put some pressure back on the Indian bowlers.
Not to forget, Ashton Agar’s debut Test was way back in 2013, against England in Nottingham. Australia were reeling at 119/7, Agar, batting at number 11, scored 98 runs, keeping Australia alive in the game. Agar has plenty of international experience already playing regularly T20Is.
