Australia’s swashbuckling opener David Warner on Monday (November 23) finally broke his silence on the debate of who will be his opening partner between Joe Burns and Will Pucovski in the upcoming high-profile Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home next month.
There has been a lot of discussions in the Australian cricket circle of who will partner Warner at the top in the upcoming four-match Test series against India with several former Australia captains like Mark Taylor, Ian Chappell, Michael Clarke calling for the highly rated Pucovski at the top.
However, Australia’s head coach Justin Langer has clearly hinted that the hosts are likely to go ahead with Burns as the opening partner for Warner in the upcoming Test series against India.
Well, Warner has now reacted to the debate, as the veteran opener favoured his old opening partner Burns but at the same time, the cricketer also insisted that he would embrace uncapped Pucovski if selected for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy at home.
The 22-year-old Victorian Pucovski has been named in Australia's 17-man squad for the much-anticipated four-match Test series against India after he impressed all with his batting show in the Sheffield Shield and Warner also admitted that Will has been batting fantastic and will have another chance to impress all during tour game to make it to the playing XI.
However, the Aussie star said Pucovski has batted himself into contention for the opener’s spot in the first Day-Night Test in Adelaide from 17 December, but claimed Burns has done enough to stay on as his opening partner against India while questioning whether it would be the right call to break up the “working partnership” having averaged over 50 together last home summer.
Warner said: “If they go the way of Will, he has been batting fantastic and been in and out of the test squad. He is in the right frame of mind at the moment. It probably is an opportunity for him to come into the team. But as we know it's harder to get out of this team than get in. I didn't think Joe did anything wrong last summer. We had some great partnerships.”
He signed off by saying, “That's what you want from your opening partnership. And at the end of the day I have to be happy with it and embrace whoever they pick. I have batted time with Joe together in the middle. I know exactly what we are about when we're out there. We won a lot of games last year. For me you don't break something that is working.”
(With Reuters Inputs)
