Australia opener Usman Khawaja defended David Warner against former pacer Mitchell Johnson’s critical remarks regarding Warner’s inclusion in the upcoming Australia vs Pakistan Test series. Khawaja also stood by Warner in connection to the 2018 ball-tampering controversy, which was once again raised by Johnson.
The 36-year-old, while expressing his disagreement with Johnson’s viewpoint, emphasized that it would be a mistake to consider moving Marnus Labuschagne to the top of Australia’s batting order. Instead, Khawaja advocated for the recruitment of a specialist opener to replace David Warner if the veteran cricketer retires from Test cricket next month.
“Davey (David) Warner and Steve Smith are heroes in my mind. They missed a year of cricket … they’ve paid their dues. No-one’s perfect. Mitchell Johnson isn’t perfect, I’m not perfect, Steven Smith isn’t perfect, David Warner isn’t perfect,” Khawaja said.
“What they’ve done for the game from a positive point of view … far outweighs anything else they’ve done, so for (Johnson) to imply that Davey Warner or anyone else involved in the sandpaper (scandal), is not a hero, I strongly disagree with that,” he added.
Mitchell Johnson’s criticism for David Warner
In a newspaper column, Mitchell Johnson asserted that David Warner should not be assured of a Test farewell in the upcoming series against Pakistan at the SCG. Johnson pointed to Warner’s involvement in the 2018 ball-tampering scandal, which resulted in a one-year suspension for Warner and Steve Smith, and a nine-month ban for Cameron Bancroft.
“When then-captain Tim Paine’s career was ending over the sexting controversy, chairman of selectors George Bailey said he didn’t want to be part of deciding Paine’s fate because the pair were close friends. The handling of Warner in recent years, who played with Bailey in all three forms, raises the question of whether Bailey was simply too quickly out of playing and into the job and too close to some of the players,” Mitchell Johnson wrote in his column for The West Australian.
Usman Khawaja’s top picks to replace David Warner
Meanwhile, Khawaja suggested that a more suitable decision would be to consider either Bancroft, Marcus Harris, or Matt Renshaw – the three leading contenders for the opening position outside the Test team – to replace the departing David Warner.
“Even if I did think one was better than the other, it’s so minuscule that it probably doesn’t matter so I think all three of those guys that are in contention to open the batting deserve it,” he said.
