{"id":7889,"date":"2020-12-10T03:12:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T04:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=7889"},"modified":"2020-12-10T05:02:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T05:02:54","slug":"katichs-startling-opening-pairing-for-first-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=7889","title":{"rendered":"Katich's startling opening pairing for first Test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former Australian opener Simon Katich has made the startling call he'd opt for the forgotten Usman Khawaja<\/a> and reinvented middle-order batsman Matthew Wade<\/a> at the top of the order in the first Test.<\/p>\n

The selection drama intensified when uncapped prodigy Will Pucovski on Tuesday retired hurt because of a head knock in the three-day tour match against an Indian XI<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the afternoon, Joe Burns had been dismissed for a duck, meaning the Queenslander has made a top score of just 29 from seven innings this summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the selectors' most worrying concern was David Warner being ruled out for the Adelaide Oval Test<\/a>, which is set to begin next Thursday, due to a groin injury.<\/p>\n

\"Usman<\/p>\n

Katich, who opened in 33 of the 56 Tests he played, said he'd choose Khawaja and Wade to open because of their experience and sheer weight of runs.<\/p>\n

"In my mind, Wade's got to come up the order. He bats at four for Tassie and he's made a lot of runs over the last few years in Shield cricket in tricky conditions down there facing the new ball," Katich said on SEN's Mornings with Matt White<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"He's been in good form for Tassie and he's obviously been in good form in the T20s.<\/p>\n

"I think you've got to open with his experience and I'd also be potentially bringing back Khawaja to open. He's a Test batsman, he averages 40 in Test cricket and, more importantly, in the seven Tests he's played as an opener he averages just under 100."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Khawaja's most fruitful Australian summer saw him dominate the New Zealand and West Indian bowlers in the 2015\/16 season, with the left-hander compiling 504 runs from five digs for an average of 126.<\/p>\n

The 44-Test veteran hasn't played a Test since the third match of Australia's 2019 Ashes tour of England, but he issued the selectors a reminder when he notched 131 and 46 not out in Queensland's most recent Sheffield Shield fixture.<\/p>\n

Wade registered 1021 runs at an average of 60.05 in the 2018\/19 Sheffield Shield season and 353 runs at 58.83 in the 2019\/20 season.<\/p>\n

But the former gloveman hasn't been quite as productive since returning to the Test side as a pure middle-order batsman for the 2019 Ashes, averaging 36.93 from 34 innings.<\/p>\n

Katich believes Australia's batting line-up is shaping up well for the first Test despite the spate of injuries and Burns' form slump<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Will<\/p>\n

"Our batting order looks very solid, with (Marnus) Labuschagne at three, (Steve) Smith at four and whoever ends up being in the middle order, whether it's (Cameron) Green or (Travis) Head and Wade," Katich said.<\/p>\n

"The engine room is the top four and the opening partnership plays a huge role in laying the foundation for the top four getting a big score on the board before the middle order comes in.<\/p>\n

"The hard thing at the moment is David Warner is a big hole to fill, there's uncertainty over Pucovski because he hasn't even played Test cricket yet and with the situation with Burns not making many runs this summer, he's left his position up for grabs, hence the reason there's any number of combinations."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former Australian opener Simon Katich has made the startling call he'd opt for the forgotten Usman Khawaja and reinvented middle-order batsman Matthew Wade at the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7891,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7889\/revisions\/7891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}