Melbourne, : Australian batsman David Warner’s sore glute has been a major cause of concern for the Australian cricket team.
“David Warner is “desperate to play” in Australia’s World Cup opener, but first needs to be cleared by medical staff following a rigorous fitness test two days out from their clash against Afghanistan.” Cricket Australia said on Friday.
The Aussies have been optimistic the left-hander would recover from a sore glute in time for Saturday’s match in Bristol, but were waiting to see how he pulled up from Thursday’s training session.
Warner will open the batting if he plays, said coach Justin Langer, meaning the final batting spot at No 3 is set to come down a call between Shaun Marsh and Usman Khawaja.
If Warner is forced to delay his first official game for Australia since the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal, both Khawaja and Marsh will play.
The 32-year-old appeared uninhibited at training under the County Ground’s lights on Thursday evening, participating in running drills, moving laterally in fielding practice, before batting for 90 minutes in the nets.
“We’ll have a pretty good idea today, how he moves and how he pulls up in the morning,” Langer said before Warner’s fitness test.
“But what I have expressed to him is it’s really important to be fair to the other players, we don’t want to be getting to Saturday morning and making a call, when a couple of other guys are wondering if they are going to play or not going to play.
“The earlier we can make the decision, the better. Hopefully we can make it tonight where he says ‘yep, I’m ready to go’, or ‘I’m not sure’ if he pulls up sore in the morning.”
Australia is expected to make a call on Warner at some stage on Friday.
“He’s obviously desperate to play,” Langer continued. “Like all 15 players would, he is jumping out of his skin, his energy is up and he’s laughing a lot, which is a really good sign. But we’ve just got to make sure he can move, particularly in the field. Batting seems okay, running in a straight line seems okay, but going side to side – we’ve just got to make sure we don’t aggravate it.”
With the Aussies yet to get a good look at the Bristol pitch, they are set to wait to make a call on the final make-up of their bowling attack. Nathan Coulter-Nile, Jason Behrendorff, Kane Richardson and Nathan Lyon appear to be fighting for one spot.
“There are some good selection dilemmas actually at the moment which is something we didn’t think we were going to have come day one of the World Cup,” Langer said.
Leg-spinner Adam Zampa gave the Aussies a further scare Thursday after hurting a finger on his left hand while catching balls in the outfield, but returned to participate in the rest of training without issue.
UNI.
