Matthew Hayden feels that David Warner’s energy and reliability will be missed by the Australian squad when they compete for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India later this year. Warner, who made 112 Test appearances for Australia and amassed 8786 runs at a strong average of over forty-five, recently announced his retirement from international cricket.
“For the first time, it doesn’t feel as secure,” Hayden, himself a left-handed opener like Warner, said on Wednesday. “David Warner gave a great service to Australian cricket. He was extremely competitive and wonderfully dynamic. He really took that legacy that I’d created through the 2000s. His strike rates in excess of 80 (70.19) gave great momentum to the top order which, otherwise, is quite conservative. So I think he’s an enormous loss in terms of how do you replace them.”
In 21 Test matches against India, Warner has amassed 1218 runs at an average of 31.23, including four hundreds. All of those runs have come in Australia, where he has amassed 760 runs in ten Test matches.
Steve Smith opening the innings is not something that Hayden, who attended the Ceat Cricket Rating Awards in Mumbai, is in favor of. He gave an explanation of his position. “The rationale that George Bailey [chief selector] gave was correct. He thought it was about choosing his best top six players, batsman.
“Now, you can’t argue with that. Steve Smith averages 65 (56.97 and has 30 (32) Test match hundreds. You know the role of an opening batsman compared to a middle-order batsman is very different. It didn’t take long to discover that [in New Zealand earlier in the year when Smith as an opener was not exactly a success]. I said at the time that I didn’t like the change. I think it’s crazy to think that you have the world’s best-in-class batter in a certain position. And then you change to a completely different position.”
Hayden also predicted that Pat Cummins will rank among Australia’s all-time great captains. “He’s a great of our game,” Hayden said of Cummins, who has won the World Cup and World Test Championship (WTC) as captain. “He has a very special leadership style and ability. It’s very different from the former kind of captains of the Australian team that were very much a carrot and stick type approach.
“He’s operating on a model that’s bringing out the individuals’ preparation in particular, something in which I think our game struggles, being a team sport. Ultimately, [it’s] how you get the best out of an individual. He has a slightly off-centre approach. I followed this team now very closely over the last two years, and they’re an extremely close team. Pat is a great leader, and he will go down as one of our greats.”
After not playing a five-Test series since 1991–1992, Australia and India will start their eagerly awaited series in Perth on November 22. Tests in Adelaide (starting on December 6), Brisbane (starting on December 14), Melbourne (starting on December 26), and Sydney (starting on January 3) will come after that. India has won the last two series in Australia, in 2018–19 and 2020–21. Since the home series in 2014–15, Australia has not held the Border–Gavaskar Trophy for more than ten years.
