When David Warner edged a ball to Zak Crawley in the slips just before Tea on the second day of the Leeds Test, he fell to Stuart Broad for the astounding 17th time in the format and third time in the series. It was yet another forgettable outing for the veteran opener, who now averages a pitiful 23.50 in Ashes 2023, with a high of 66 in six innings. However, Australia’s captain Pat Cummins threw his support behind Warner and indicated that the opening duo would remain the same for the next Test at Old Trafford.
“I think [Warner] has been going really well. I thought at Lord’s, he was really impressive. Last week, like many of us, he probably didn’t contribute as much as he would have liked with the bat,” Cummins said.
“He’s been out there over the last couple of days putting in a lot of work, but I think this tour he has shown a lot of good signs and hasn’t quite kicked on to make that big score. Some of those innings he’s played under really tough circumstances has made it easy for [Steven] Smith to come in and score runs, or the like.
“We’ll chat about it [opening combinations] but I imagine it will stay the same,” Cummins said.
With Warner apparently secure from axing, Australia’s dilemma heading into the fourth Test may be whether to recall Cameron Green. The 24-year-old all-rounder missed the match against Leeds due to a side injury, and his replacement, Mitchell Marsh, secured his position with a run-a-ball 118 in the first innings. In order for Green to return, Australia may have to move Todd Murphy to the bench.
In the third Test, the off spinner replaced the ailing Nathan Lyon, but only bowled 9.3 overs. Keeping Murphy out would necessitate an all-pace attack, which may not be optimal for their overrate troubles, despite Usman Khawaja’s efforts to reduce the penalties.
“Every situation is different. We’ve played games with one quick; we’ve played some games with heaps of quicks. Its all really conditions based. As I said last week about Toddy, I would have loved to bowl him a bit more but there wasn’t a heap of overs in the game, the ball seemed to swing and seem a little bit, so that’s certainly something to weigh up this week,” Cummins opined.
Despite the fact that Cummins stated after the Leeds loss that England’s momentum hadn’t really shifted and that they still held the advantage with a 2-1 lead, it is expected that England will press the visitors further at Old Trafford in quest of series parity. England also have the rich Ashes history working against them; the last time a team overcame a 0-2 deficit and won was in 1936-37.
Moreover, Australia has a propensity to climax towards the conclusion of a difficult tour if the aforementioned metric is insufficient. After draws in Rawalpindi and Karachi, they secured a 1-0 series victory in Pakistan with a victory in the third Test in Lahore, securing a 1-0 series victory. This year in India, they overcame a 0-2 deficit to win a Test in Indore and earn a tie in Ahmedabad. The series was canceled, but the actors’ performances improved over time.
“When you look back to a few of the recent tours we’ve had in Pakistan or India we played so of our best cricket at the end of the tour. Hopefully this one’s the same, even getting more and more used to the conditions. And fortunately, other than Nath we haven’t any injury troubles so it feels like it’s set up quite nicely,” Cummins said.
