Ditch Davey and Aussies are finished
AUSTRALIA might not win the Twenty20 World Cup with David Warner, but it certainly will not win it without him.
Despite the concerns over Warner’s form, selectors must back in one of the all-time greats of T20 and hope he rises for the big occasion.
Australia doesn’t have the depth to justify axing such a proven performer for game one of the tournament, and though the alarm bells are sounding after so little time in the middle, you simply cannot win world cups without heavyweights.
There were calls for Steve Smith to also be axed from Australia’s best XI, but as he has proven across the two warm-up games, he remains crucial, even if a couple of others around him might have more enviable T20 records on paper.
Like Smith, Warner is our other proven big-occasion heavyweight and Australia has to trust his pedigree.
To drop Warner, Australia would have to be convinced Matthew Wade or Marcus Stoinis could do a better job at the top. Can it be that sure?
With doubts over whether Australia has the batting firepower to challenge the top dogs as it is, the last thing it can afford to do is not load up its biggest cannon for Saturday’s opener against South Africa.
According to Nathan Lyon, there are four keys to Australia’s T20 World Cup hopes, and Warner is one of them.
“You need everyone there firing, not just David,’’ Lyon said. “But if David fires, it goes a long way to (winning) the World Cup.
“You’ve got (Warner), (Glenn) Maxwell, Stoinis and (Mitchell) Starc, who are the big four in my eyes.
“Davey’s Davey. I’ve got full confidence he’ll bounce back. The wheel often goes around in cricket. He just needs to trust his process and he’ll come out of it. I’m actually backing he’ll have a pretty big World Cup and massive Ashes.”
The bigger picture for Australia is that Warner’s form is far from its only headache.
Across the board there are huge question marks over whether the batting is good enough.
Aaron Finch looked scratchy in both warm-up games coming back from knee surgery and the jury is out on whether Australia has the right balance of rhythm and explosiveness in its middle order to compete with the best teams that have expert finishers in those positions.
Warner’s real issue is not so much form, but the fact it’s combined with a complete lack of match practice.
His recent scores of 0, 2, 0 and 1 are his only four matches since April. And he hasn’t played a proper match for Australia (outside the two unofficial warm-up games) since the Gabba Test in January.
The World Cup starts on Saturday night against a beatable Proteas lineup with no AB de Villiers, Dale Steyn or Faf du Plessis. Australia has to believe a Warner score will play it into contention in this tournament.
If he struggles, Australia will struggle this World Cup. But if Warner is not in the line-up, Australia won’t have the weaponry to turn around its fortunes.
Warner’s NSW coach Phil Jaques
said the left-hander had to forget about his snub from his IPL club and get back into the fight.
“Once he’s back in the competition he’s a real fighter, a real competitor,” Jaques said.
“As you get older you don’t need as long a preparation or as much preparation as when you were a younger fella, so I’m sure he’ll adapt and still win games for Australia.”