Warner shows why debate lingers over 'toughest job'

Mike Hussey stood outside the MCG on Boxing Day morning gratefully clutching his Australian Cricket Hall of Fame plaque. No small part of the reason Hussey had been inducted into a club of only 63 greats was his transformation from dogged opening batter to versatile middle-order dasher.

A couple of hours later, after Pat Cummins lost the toss and Australia were inserted on a seaming pitch, David Warner went to work in his penultimate Test. Under heavy cloud cover, Warner and Usman Khawaja negotiated the tricky conditions and denied Pakistan a breakthrough until the final ball of the session.

The 37-year-old’s knock of 38 from 83 deliveries, ended when he edged an innocuous off-break from Salman Ali Agha on the stroke of lunch, will be forgotten in time – especially given his blistering 164 in the NRMA Insurance series opener in Perth remains fresh in the memory.

But in the context of this match, Warner’s efforts to shield Australia’s middle order may prove vital.

Hussey made just one of his 19 Test centuries opening the batting; his first, coming in his second Test during the 2005-06 summer, against West Indies when he filled in for an injured Justin Langer in Hobart.

When Langer returned for the next Test in Adelaide, Hussey moved down to five, hit another ton and never looked back.

He opened just four more times for the rest of his 79-Test career.

Hussey has never forgotten how big a difference there is between starting an innings against the new ball and starting an innings after it has softened.

So it is of particular interest to him that, among the options being considered by selectors for when Warner hangs up his Baggy Green after next week's Sydney Test, one is essentially pulling a 'reverse Mike Hussey'; that is, promoting one of their incumbent middle-order bats to partner Khawaja. 

"I think that'd be really difficult to do," said Hussey, who was part of Australia’s coaching staff during the Perth Test.

"Opening is one of the toughest jobs in the game.

"For me, personally, if I was selecting, I'd be going for a traditional, proper opener, someone who's done it for a long period of time, because if you haven't done it much in your first-class career, it's going to be very difficult to come up the order.

"I'm not saying you can't do it and maybe someone could evolve into doing that role.

"But I think it would be difficult for a player like Mitch Marsh – there's been talking about him going up the order – I think he's probably more suited, much like Travis Head, to be in the middle order.

"I think that'd be the best for the balance of the Australian team."

The fact Pakistan made Warner play and miss 15 times during the opening session underscored just how difficult batting was on a truncated first day.

New-ball quicks Shaheen Shah Afridi and Mir Hamza both swung the ball big in the darkened morning light, troubling Australia's left-handed openers with away swing and nip off the pitch.

The visitors will fairly say they could have got on an early wicket-taking roll had Abdullah Shafique held on to a regulation chance off a Warner edge that sailed at a comfortable catching height at first slip.

"You’ve just got to try to apply pressure in a way that eliminates the risk of dismissal … and you've got to be brave to do that," Warner told reporters at stumps on day one with Australia 3-187.

"It is a challenge, but to try to apply the pressure back to the bowlers, you have to do something. I'm not the player who can just sit there, otherwise I may as well just kick them (his stumps) over."

But the question selectors will have had on their minds as they watched Warner on Tuesday morning is whether any of the leading Sheffield Shield openers – the ones in the running to replace him for next month's two-Test series against West Indies – could have withstood a similar examination.

Andrew McDonald has openly floated the possibility of one of the Test incumbents being bumped up to open to allow allrounder Cameron Green to return when Warner retires, pointing to how the likes of Langer, David Boon and Shane Watson have gone from the middle to the top in previous eras.

Even Khawaja fits that mould somewhat having spent most of his time in the middle order before reinventing himself in the twilight of his career.

Marcus Harris has a reasonable case to say he could have played a similar hand to Warner's – because he has before.

There was of course the quick-fire 131-ball 126 Harris scored against Pakistan in a tour match on a good Junction Oval batting track last week.

But more relevant might be his most recent Test innings at the MCG on a similar pitch, when he hit a Test-high 76 against England that helped Australia clinch the 2021-22 Ashes.

The Victorian has spent much of the time since shadowing the Test squad, which Warner suggested may give him an edge.

"I feel like the person who has worked their backside off and has been there for a while … I think 'Harry' has been that person who has always toured, who is going to have that chance," Warner said.

"He's always been that person who is next in line. If the selectors showed their faith in him then I'm sure he'll come out and play the way he does.

"He's not too dissimilar to me – he sees it in his areas, he plays his shots – and I think he'd fit well."

Matthew Renshaw is another contender and he has also enhanced his credentials recently with a tour-match ton against Pakistan, scoring an unbeaten 136 for the Prime Minister's XI on a slow Manuka Oval surface earlier this month.

But over the last four-and-a-half Shield seasons, no batter (let alone another opener) has scored more Shield runs than Cameron Bancroft's 2,795 (at an average of 43.00), leaving Harris (2,342 runs at 44.19 over the same period) and Renshaw (1,750 at 36.46) in the dust.

Green, incidentally, has made 2,081 runs at 63.06 in the Shield in that time.

Hussey stopped short of anointing a successor to Warner, but believes those numbers should be the most important factor.

"I've always been one that I like whoever's dominating the level below. Who's been dominating in Sheffield Shield cricket over a period of time? To be fair, they all have at various stages," said Hussey, whose 8,007 Shield runs for Western Australia came at an average of 41.06.

"It's a tough job for the selectors, so I don't want to stand here and say 'it should be this guy or this guy'.

"But I hope that they reward the guy that's been performing very well at Sheffield Shield cricket.

"I think that sends a great message to the competition and it's great for our pathways that we're going to reward the guys that are doing well at first class level."

NRMA Insurance Test series v Pakistan

First Test: Australia won by 360 runs

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG (10.30am AEDT)

Third Test: January 3-7, SCG (10.30am AEDT)

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitch Marsh, Steve Smith, Mitch Starc, David Warner

Pakistan squad: Shan Masood (c), Aamir Jamal, Abdullah Shafique, Abrar Ahmed, Babar Azam, Faheem Ashraf, Hasan Ali, Imam-ul-Haq, Mir Hamza, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Mohammad Wasim Jnr, Saim Ayub, Salman Ali Agha, Sarfaraz Ahmed (wk), Saud Shakeel and Shaheen Shah Afridi