Melbourne [Australia], November 8 (ANI): Marcus Harris believes he is “pretty well-equipped” to don David Warner’s role and open for Australia in the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) against India.
In almost two weeks’ time, the first ball of the highly-anticipated series will be bowled in Perth on November 22. While India named an 18-player squad with three travelling reserves, Australia have held their cards close to the chest.
Australian management is still pondering on the player who could take the burden of opening for the hosts after it was decided to restore Steven Smith into the middle order.
After Warner had his last dance in Test cricket in January, Smith was pushed to open alongside Usman Khawaja. His underwhelming run in the short-lived stint eventually concluded when selection committee chairperson George Bailey confirmed the seasoned star wouldn’t open against India.
With Australia still considering its options, Harris has thrown his hat in the ring to step up to the role in the series, which could decide the fate of the World Test Championship final.
“So if I get called upon, I feel like I’m ready to go, and if I don’t, then so be it. I feel pretty well-equipped. I think maybe if I was in this position 12 months ago, I probably wouldn’t have been able to perform the way I have at the start of this season. My results last year probably said that. So I’ve been proud of that,” Harris said, according to ESPNcricinfo.
During the ongoing unofficial Test series against India A, Harris has opened the innings for Australia A in both matches. In the first match, the southpaw started the proceedings with youngster Sam Konstas in Mckay, recording 17 and 36 in both innings.
In the second match, Konastas was demoted, with Nathan McSweeney opening alongside Harris. The 32-year-old revealed that the selectors didn’t say a lot to him during the build-up of both games.
“They just said that I’ll open in the first game, and we’re not really sure what’s going to happen with the second game. So I don’t know if that was the plan,” he remarked.
Harris feels that signs are present about the selectors’ thought process, but he doesn’t intend to read too much into it, considering his past experiences.
“It was probably pretty obvious what was happening. You’d have to ask them, to be honest. You never know. Like last year, for example, we had the bat-off in Canberra, and they picked Renners [Matt Renshaw], who was batting at three. So, yeah, I don’t know,” he noted.
In the second unofficial Test, Harris showed his art with the bat by putting up a valiant 74 in 138 deliveries before losing his wicket to Prasidh Krishna. (ANI)
