Why is David Warner not playing today: Australia don’t have four key cricketers at their disposal on this tour.
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Australia have managed to put curbs in front of the Indian batters in the powerplay of the first T20I in Mohali tonight. Australian pacers picking a couple of wickets in the powerplay saw India scoring 46/2 in six overs.
Visitors’ on-field performance in the first contest of the tour justified captain Aaron Finch’s decision of bowling first after winning the toss.
India opening batters KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma (11) did hit a six each against Australia’s new ball bowlers but couldn’t register a carnage as captain Sharma was soon dismissed by Josh Hazlewood.
Sharma’s predecessor Virat Kohli (2) also failed to get going during his seven-ball stay before an attempt to break the shackles against Nathan Ellis resulted in him hitting the ball straight to Cameron Green at mid-on.
Why is David Warner not playing today vs India?
Playing a T20I in India after three and a half years, Australia have included a solitary spin-bowling option in Adam Zampa in their Playing XI. Three specialist fast bowlers have probably been played keeping one eye on ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at home next month.
For the unversed, Australia have taken the field at the Punjab Cricket Association IS Bindra Stadium in the absence of four first-choice players namely David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Starc due to injury and workload-related reasons.
While Marsh was the first one to be ruled out of India tour 2022, Warner, Stoinis and Starc followed suit after the completion of a three-match ODI series against New Zealand. All active cricketers, the quartet is very much part of Australia’s 15-member squad for the World Cup.
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Warner, in particular, hasn’t retired from any format of international cricket as of now. The 35-year old player had last represented Australia in the shortest format during the tour of Sri Lanka earlier this year.
Finch confirmed at the toss that all-rounder Cameron Green would be his opening partner in Warner’s absence tonight. Green, 23, is playing only his second T20I and has never opened the batting in any format of representative cricket.
