Border Gavaskar Trophy: Ahead of debut, Nathan McSweeney gets advice from Wayne Phillips, last Australian opener to score ton on debut

“He (Nathan McSweeney) doesn’t need to be getting 100 on debut. A good solid score would be fine. He’s in really good form. He knows his game and we’ve seen that here in Adelaide. I would expect that with all the questions he gets asked by the India attack, he’ll be fairly confident that he has the right answers. Enjoy it,” Phillips told Sydney Morning Herald in an interview on Wednesday.

With Australia facing the daunting task of replacing former opener David Warner, the spotlight has been on McSweeney. The 25-year-old McSweeney, who has so far played in 34 First Class matches in his career, had never opened in his career except donning the role against India A side during the second unofficial Test in Melbourne earlier this month.

In the first unofficial Test against India A, McSweeney had made a half-century batting in the middle order at Mackay. At Melbourne, the 25-year old had made 14 and 24 while batting as an opener.

Kepler Wessels’ score of 162 made against West Indies in 1982, one year prior to Phillips’s maiden hundred against Pakistan, remains the highest knock by an Australian opener on debut in their maiden innings. Phillips’s maiden hundred had come at WACA in Perth against a Pakistan attack consisting of Mudassar Nazar, Mohammad Nazir and Abdul Qadir. With Wessels departing early, Phillips had stitched together a 259-run partnership with Graham Yallop. “My century is firmly in my memory because I talk about it every day. (After the practice match) Selectors thought, ‘oh well, he must be in a bit of form, let’s pop him in and see what he does. I was very confident with my form at the time. I was chuffed. It was pretty daunting. You walk into that change room and there is Rod Marsh, Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee, who are genuine greats of the game. That was more daunting than going out to the middle,” remembered the former Australian opener.

None of the Australian openers, who have made their debut as a specialist opener since 1982 have been able to score a maiden Test hundred in their maiden Test. Only five Australian openers have achieved the feat with Charles Bannerman, Archie Jackson and Herbie Collins being the other three in the elite list. Warner, who made 8726 runs including 26 centuries, has put his money on McSweeney to excel against the Indian attack in the five Test series. “I think he’s got the technique, he’s got the patience to partner up with Uzzy (Khawaja) to allow himself to score big. ’ve pencilled him in to be the highest run scorer this year, so I’m looking forward to that. I think they’ve both got the same sort of patience, which is going to be good for them and hold the middle order in good stead,” Warner told Media on Wednesday in Perth.