Australia have stood by David Warner for this week's crucial Fourth Ashes Test, with spinner Todd Murphy instead fighting to keep his place.
Warner is under pressure after making just five runs across two innings in the Third Test at Headingley before falling twice to Stuart Broad, and there had been talk Australia would re-jig their line-up in order to accommodate both the fit-again Cameron Green and Mitchell Marsh, who scored a century deputising for the all-rounder.
Aussie captain Pat Cummins, though, has given Warner his backing, with the tourists set to go into the Manchester contest with an unchanged top order.
“Davey didn’t have his best game last week at Headingley but prior to that looked really good,” Cummins said on Tuesday. “He had three 50-run partnerships which can be rare over here in England. The way him and [Usman Khawaja] have batted has been really important to setting up our innings.
“We back Davey, we know how tough it can be to open over here. I’m sure he’s doing all the right things, he’s shown some great signs and I think a big score’s just around the corner.”
Cummins confirmed that seamer Josh Hazlewood will return to the side in place of Scott Boland, but was keeping his cards close to his chest as far as the final place in the Australian side, with Marsh expected to be retained and one of Green and Murphy set to miss out.
The 22-year-old spinner made his Ashes debut in Leeds but bowled only two overs in England's successful run chase to leave the tourists considering an all-seam attack at Old Trafford, where a wet weather forecast could force a shortened game and negate the impact of spin.
"Every situation is different," Cummins said. "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.
“It’s all conditions based, we’re really excited about Toddy, we think he’s a gun, he’s going to have a great future.”
