It is safe to say that Australia’s openers haven’t had the best of times of late. While Wade has been batting out of position and has opened the innings for Australia in the first two Tetss against India, despite being a proper Number 6 batsman, has got to a few starts. Joe Burns hasn’t been at his best either and has had three low scores. Australia’s former vice-captain and proven match winner David Warner looks all set to play the third Test against India. young career, Will Pucovski batted opposite David Warner at the SCG nets on Tuesday and came through a stern examination from Australia’s fast bowlers.
Granted, predicting an XI out of a net session two days out from ball one is a bit like reading tea leaves, but his pairing with Warner in Australia’s final mandatory net session has to be a positive sign as he aims to finally get his hands on a baggy green.
Cleared to play the SCG Test after recovering from the ninth concussion of his young career, Will Pucovski batted opposite David Warner at the SCG nets on Tuesday. The two men batted together for close to an hour, with the first 15 minutes coming against Cameron Green, Pat Cummins and Michael Neser under the watch of coach Justin Langer who was standing in as umpire. “Will has been cleared by an independent neurologist yesterday afternoon. He has been cleared by all the medicos now. He has obviously managed all the concussion protocols which we all know are incredibly strict these days — they have all been passed. He has been cleared and that would be very heartening for him, for his family and for everyone involved in it. There is no reason why Will can’t be selected. We are just working now on the balance of our team,” informed head coach Justin Langer while speaking to the media on Tuesday morning. “I think every team he has played, they have bowled a lot of short balls to him. He has practiced with them. He has hit thousands and thousands of short balls…He is in a great frame of mind, incredibly positive about playing cricket, he has trained hard this week. The only way to get back on the horse is to get back on the horse and ultimately he is going to go there and face the short-pitched bowling,” the head coach Justin Langer said. “Very, very hopeful Davey (Warner) will be ready to go. He has done everything possible to be ready for the third Test. Looks like he is moving pretty well, he is very determined to play. We will finalise on him at training this afternoon and make a decision on that. He is looking very, very likely to play the Test match,” He continued.
“I think his batting might be fine. There might be some different movements that he might just need to make in the field. So we probably will get him in the slips. I still clearly remember those brilliant catches he took at Leeds in that Test match a year or so ago. He is going to be playing with pain though and it is not so much in the muscle area but in the tendon area. We are confident that unless he does something exactly like he did in the ODI, it is not that he will reinjure himself. But he is going to have some pain. And like a lot of cricketers play through different levels of pain, he is willing to take that on and hopefully it is not going to happen that much,” he added. There’s a likelihood that Australia might go into the third test with a new opening pair with David Warner and Will Pucovski. Only time will tell if this new opening pair could succeed in the last two Tests if given a chance