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When you pick an Australian cricket team, it is a representative team. You don\u2019t pick the 11 or 12 best mates around the country. You pick your 11 or 12 best cricketers, and you put them together to represent your country.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s how it is and how it should be. With that in mind, you\u2019re not going to get 11 or 12 blokes who are absolutely best mates. And that can lead to the debate that has dominated the week leading up to the first Test of the summer.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know the relationship between Mitchell Johnson and David Warner. It\u2019s obviously not great, but that doesn\u2019t need to be taken into the media.<\/p>\n
I think Mitchell Johnson is entitled, as we all are as commentators, to make his points on whether David Warner should play or not. And if they\u2019re based on fact, and data, I don\u2019t see a problem with that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s when things get a little bit personal, that\u2019s when it blows up into the sort of story that we\u2019ve read over the last week. And that\u2019s something that I\u2019ve tried very hard to avoid over the last 20-odd years since moving from a player to a commentator and columnist.<\/p>\n
Often these stories are nowhere near as big for the guys in the team than they are for those of us outside the dressing room. For those of us on the outside it\u2019s the sort of story we enjoy because it gives us something to talk about, rather than a Prime Minister\u2019s XI match against Pakistan which gets washed out, or whether Pakistan give Australia a decent run for their money.<\/p>\n
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Shh: Mitchell Johnson, George Bailey and David Warner in 2013.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Getty<\/cite><\/p>\n So in that regard this was a great story to have leading into the first Test. But for the Australians and Pakistanis, I\u2019m sure they\u2019re just thinking about what\u2019s going to happen come first ball of the Test at Perth Stadium on Thursday. That\u2019s the way you often go about it.<\/p>\n Obviously behind the scenes there\u2019s probably a little bit of animosity there between David and Mitch, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s a bigger story for those of us reading newspapers than it is the guys playing in the Test.<\/p>\n David has done his retirement very differently to most players by nominating months ago that this would be his last Test series. Usually when players start thinking about retirement they don\u2019t do their best work. I don\u2019t know David all that well, but I know him well enough to realise he will be out to prove everyone wrong.<\/p>\n His Ashes were OK, but not great. Then he had a very good World Cup that Australia won, and his fielding was outstanding. There\u2019s nothing he\u2019d love more now than to get a hundred, or maybe a couple of hundreds, in these three Tests to say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019ve still got it. I\u2019ve worked hard. I\u2019ve done everything I can at the age of 37, and I\u2019ve shown that I could still do it.\u2019 That will be his goal.<\/p>\n Of all the discussions around Warner\u2019s last Test series, the most significant question is who will replace him at the top of the order when he retires?<\/p>\n I read with interest Greg Chappell\u2019s suggestion in these pages recently that Mitch Marsh should be promoted to open the batting as an attacking option because that\u2019s what Australia will miss the most. It\u2019s not only David\u2019s average of 44 over a long career that has made him a great player, it\u2019s his strike rate of 70.<\/p>\n For that reason, I believe that Cameron Green should be given the same consideration to open the batting. He\u2019s better technically equipped than Mitch Marsh, is an excellent young player on the rise, would give Australia a left-right combination with Usman Khawaja at the top of the order, and is a wonderful slip and gully fieldsman.<\/p>\n Australia will not only miss Warner\u2019s batting but also his catching in the slips, which is a vital and often underrated part of the game. That is part of the reason why Green would be so valuable.<\/p>\n Sports news, results and expert commentary.<\/i><\/b> Sign up for our Sport newsletter<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\nMost Viewed in Sport<\/h2>\n
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