A number of openers, including Matt Renshaw, Marcus Harris, and Cameron Bancroft, were placed on notice shortly after David Warner announced his retirement from Test cricket. Interestingly, the team management was amenable to testing Cameron Green and Usman Khawaja together at the top of the order. But Steve Smith made matters more tricky by declaring his intention to open ahead of the third Test against Pakistan in Sydney. Supporting the concept, Marnus Labuschange said that it would greatly inspire him to improve in the longest format. But as previously stated, captain Pat Cummins is not a fan of the concept and is OK with Smith playing at number four.
Labuschange, Smith, Travis Head, and Mitchell Marsh have all done well, so the skipper continued, saying he has no issues with numbers three through six.
“I think Smith’s performance at No. 4 is fairly good. It goes without saying that at Nos. 3, 4, 5, and 6, Marnus (Labuschagne), Smudge (Smith), Trav (Head), and Mitchell Marsh have all shown promise. Thus, the natural tendency isn’t likely to interfere with it, Cummins was cited by Cricbuzz.
It will be very difficult to duplicate Davey. Pat Cummins
It will be difficult for the team to replace Warner, who was a formidable player in red-ball cricket, according to Cummins. While mentioning that players who score runs in the Sheffield Shield will be taken into consideration, the 30-year-old did not provide a clear indication of who could replace Warner in the starting XI.
“It’s evident that Davey Warner’s contributions will be extremely difficult to duplicate. Fundamentally, I believe you seek out the player who is in the best position to score runs. Nonetheless, I believe that several elements of Test cricket never change, one of them being the necessity of applying pressure to the opponent. The scoreboard must be ticking over for you. You have to keep the scoreboard moving forward most of the time, but not always. Even if there are factors to take into account, anyone making runs in shield cricket is often a solid indication that they have what it takes to succeed at the next level, according to Cummins.
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