BATTING WITH WARNER ‘ INTIMIDATING’

DAVID Warner’s old opening partner has given Will Pucovski a crash course on what it is like batting with Test cricket’s most destructive force.

“The one thing about batting with Davey is it can be a little bit intimidating at times,” Chris Rogers, who opened with Warner in most of his 25 Test matches, told Pucovski, pictured.

“Because you can look up at the scoreboard and he’s on 40 and you’re on five.

“It’s about changing it so that you see that as a positive, in that he’s taken the pressure off you and you don’t have to worry about the scoreboard and you can lock in a little bit.

“And whatever people might think about Davey, when he’s out in the middle he’s actually really good to bat with.

“He’s got a lot of good thoughts and he’s very supportive.

“I think he’ll be good for Will, too, because he won’t take it too seriously and he’ll allow Will to be Will.”

Pucovski will become Australia’s 460th Test player when he receives his baggy green at the SCG today and forms a newlook combination with Warner laced with fire and finesse.

Warner commands eyeballs no matter where in the world he is batting.

But the spotlight will shift to Pucovski in Sydney, the batting prodigy who Australians first expected to lay eyes on two years ago. Instead Kurtis Patterson batted Pucovski out of a Test debut in 2019 with twin tons in a tour match, and then last summer Pucovski maturely removed himself from consideration on mental health grounds.

Then, Pucovski’s ninth concussion knocked him out of calculations for the first two Tests this summer.

On Monday an independent neurologist cleared the young Victorian to return and Pucovski told coach Justin Langer he was ready to face the Indian attack spearheaded by Jasprit Bumrah.

“The only way to get back on the horse is to get back on the horse,” Langer said this week. “He’s ultimately the one who has to make the decision.”