David Warner vs Travis Head - who should open the innings for Australia in the WTC final against India?
As Australia prepare to take on India in the World Test Championship (WTC) 2023 final at The Oval, one of the big decisions for them will be to choose between David Warner and Travis Head as the opening partner for Usman Khawaja.
Speaking ahead of the mega clash, which begins on Wednesday, June 7, Aussie skipper Pat Cummins confirmed that there will be no surprises in the playing XI. This basically means that both Warner and Head will be part of the starting XI for the WTC final against India.
During the four-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy in India earlier this year, Warner started the series as an opener. But he was replaced by Head at the top of the order as he was ruled out due to injury.
While Head is primarily a middle-order batter, he impressed while opening in the Test matches in India, which is why Australia might be pondering upon continuing with him at the top of the order.
Warner vs Head: Who has a better recent record as an opener?
Warner has had a poor 2023 in Tests so far, although the sample size is rather small. He has played three Tests and has opened the batting in four innings, scoring a mere 36 runs at an average of nine.
His scores in the four innings read 10, 1, 10, and 15. In short, he has looked completely out of sorts. To put things into perspective, though, three of the four knocks came in India, where he has traditionally struggled.
Speaking of Head, he has also played three Test matches as an opener since the start of 2023 and has impressive returns to show for his efforts. The aggressive batter has scored 223 runs at an average of 55.57 with a best of 90, which came in the Ahmedabad Test against India in March.
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If we go by recent Test form, Head looks like the better choice than Warner to open the innings with Khawaja in the WTC final. The fact that he tasted success against India in India recently should stand him in good stead.
Does Warner fit into the middle order?
Even if one concludes that Head is a better choice than Warner at the top of the order with regard to the WTC final, the main concern is that the latter is not used to batting in the middle order.
In fact, the veteran batter has come in the middle order (No. 4 to No. 7) only once during his 103-Test career. Warner came into bat at No. 6 in the 2013 Ashes Test in Manchester. He scored 5 off 10 balls and was caught at slip off Graeme Swann’s bowling.
In contrast, Head is a well-established middle-order batter for Australia. In 34 Tests while batting in the middle order, he has notched up 2102 runs at an average of 44.72, with five hundreds. In fact, all his three-figure scores for Australia have come while he has batted in the middle order.
So, while Head has done well in a couple of Test matches for Australia at the top of the order, the majority of his success has come in the middle order.
Why sticking to Warner as opener makes sense
Considering all permutations and combinations, one can conclude that Australia would do well to stick to Warner as Khawaja’s opening partner.
Warner may have struggled with the bat lately, but now that they have picked him in the squad for the WTC final against India, the Australian think tank must bank on his vast experience to deliver the goods.
The former Pakistan captain urges India's quicks to stay patient and not drop their length too short early in their spell.
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To put it bluntly, Warner is not a middle-order batter, and shifting him down the order would not help either him or the team.
And while Head did commendably well as an opener in India in Warner’s absence, the fact that remains that the experiment was a stop-gap arrangement and must remain one.