Follow UsDavid Warner has had yet another Ashes Test series in England to gorget. Hebhas managed just 141 runs at 23.50 in six innings so far. Moreover, his troubles against Stuart Broad continue. The England pacer has dismissed the southpaw a whopping 17 times in Test cricket, three of which have come in this series.
Speaking ahead of the Manchester Test, Australia skipper Pat Cummins has hinted that Warner will continue to retain his place. "I think [Warner] has been going really well. I thought at Lord's, he was really impressive. Last week, like many of us, he probably didn't contribute as much as he would have liked with the bat," Cummins said.
"He's been out there over the last couple of days putting in a lot of work, but I think this tour he has shown a lot of good signs and hasn't quite kicked on to make that big score. Some of those innings he's played under really tough circumstances has made it easy for [Steven] Smith to come in and score runs, or the like.
"We'll chat about it [opening combinations] but I imagine it will stay the same."
The only call that Australia would now have to make is if they want to get all-rounder Cameron Green back in the XI at the expense of Todd Murphy - the only specialist spinner. If Green gets in for Murphy, Australia will be fielding an all-pace attack with Travis Head's part-time off-spin providing temporary relief.
Moreover, Murphy bowled just 9.3 overs in the third Test after replacing Nathan Lyon, who had been ruled out of the series due to a calf injury.
"Every situation is different. We've played games with one quick, we've played some games with heaps of quicks. It's all really conditions based. As I said last week about Toddy, I would have loved to bowl him a bit more but there wasn't a heap of overs in the game, the ball seemed to swing and seam a little bit, so that's certainly something to weigh up this week," the Australia skipper said.
Australia now risk going into the final Test at The Oval with the series all tied up at 2-2, if England pull off a victory at Old Trafford. However, Cummins, who had insisted that the momentum had not shifted to England after their win in Leeds, is hoping to cash in on Australia's good showing at the end of the tours. \
They managed to nick a 1-0 series win in Pakistan, with a victory in the third Test in Lahore and most recently in India, they were able to come out on top in the third Test in Indore and secure a draw in Ahmedabad after being 0-2 down.
"When you look back to a few of the recent tours we've had in Pakistan or India we played so of our best cricket at the end of the tour. Hopefully this one's the same, even getting more and more used to the conditions. And fortunately other than Nath we haven't any injury troubles so it feels like it's set up quite nicely," Cummins reckons.
Many have questioned if there was a need for Australian cricketers to take a break after going down at Leeds. Cummins was however quick to point out that while there were tour games in 2019, and Australia were able to pull off a victory in Manchester, the team lost steam in the final Test at The Oval, and eventually finished 2-2.
"I didn't play a tour match so I was able to grab those windows, but for a lot of the guys after the Test finished they were off to play a tour match somewhere," he said.
"You'll hear us talking about trying to give players breaks as much as we can because on a 60-day tour playing 30 days of cricket, it's already pretty busy.
"That's part of the thinking how we set up this tour around our prep, and even for a few of us missing IPLs or having shortened IPLs so that when we get to this stage we feel in as good a position as we can.
A win for Australia at Old Trafford will see them win a Test series in England for the first time since 2001. They came close in 2019, but will hope to go all the way this time around.