David Warner and Steve Smith shine on comeback
Banned Aussie superstars David Warner and Steve Smith dominated the proceedings on their comeback trail playing in the New South Wales Premier cricket competition on home soil in Australia.
Warner, representing his childhood club Randwick - Petersham, smacked a brilliant century while also showing off his fielding skills with a sharp one-handed take. What must be heartening is the fact that his hundred came against some quality bowling in the form of Test regular Josh Hazlewood and the NSW blues left armer Trent Copeland. On reaching his century, he celebrated the landmark with his trademark jump and punching of the air, acknowledging the cheers of the crowd.
Even Steve Smith, playing for his club Sutherland against Mosman, compiled a well made 85 off 92 balls. A decent crowd of over 1000 had gathered at the Glenn McGrath oval and they cheered Smith on as he seeks to make his way back up the ladder.
Both of them must be relieved as these knocks come after rather lean runs in the Caribbean Premier League. Warner managed only two scores of substance as he continued to be plagued by poor umpiring decisions or bad form, Smith's campaign was cut short due to an injury after he was able to deliver just one man of the match performance.
Recently Justin Langer, head coach of the Australian national team, publicly stated that all three were good human beings who committed a mistake. If decent form was shown, he felt that there was no reason why they should not be immediately welcomed back into the national fold.
While Smith has to wait for 2 years before coming into the reckoning for a captaincy role again, Warner has been banned from holding a leadership position for the national team. Despite that, Langer mentioned that Warner was a leader within the group and shone light upon his captaincy credentials by reminding how he took a struggling T20 team to the top of the table.