New Delhi, April 19 George Bailey, the chairman of Australia men's national selection panel, reckons veteran left-handed opener David Warner is invested in playing an integral role in the World Test Championship final against India in June. But on being asked over Warner playing a crucial role in the Ashes series that follows the WTC final, Bailey chose not to commit to it.
Warner averages only 26.04 in Tests in England. He made just 26 runs in three innings in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series in India, before being ruled out due to elbow injury and concussion.
"He (Warner) is invested and wants to make sure he helps us finish off what's been a really consistent couple of years on the Test front by winning the World Test Championship, and then shift that focus really quickly to the Ashes.
We'll just get through that Test Championship and we'll obviously be planning behind the scenes (for the Ashes), but we'll see what that looks like as we get there. It's different opposition, different surface in terms of going from The Oval to start the Ashes (at Edgbaston) so we'll work through that," Bailey was quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
From the Australian squad named for their long sojourn to England, all-rounder Mitchell Marsh's name comes as a surprise considering his last Test outing came in the previous Ashes tour of 2019.
Bailey revealed that not having Cameron Green's services due to injury in the first two Tests against India had played a part in Marsh earning a recall to the longest format of the game.
"It's great to have Mitch back. He hasn't really had the opportunity to be bowling in longer format cricket for some time. The operation he had just prior to Christmas has worked really well, we're confident we can get him back and up and available as an allrounder," Bailey said.
"Not having Greeny during part of the India series highlighted to us the value of having that as a back-up. Mitch has performed well in the UK in the past, and we think he can add some real value," he added.
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