While he made his ODI debut against West Indies earlier this year, Faser-McGurk has played in five T20Is in his brief international career so far. (ICC)
With just 36 runs in the three-match ODI series against Pakistan, Australian opener Jake Fraser-McGurk has drawn some criticism from former Australian cricketers. While the right-handed batsman, who has only played in five ODIs in his brief international career so far, has been primed for bigger success by the cricketing circle, former Australian opener David Warner believes the 22-year-old needs to score runs to keep his place in the Australian squad but also urged him to keep the same approach of attacking cricket.
“We were talking about whether his game plan will change. Well it won’t. He’s happy with the way that he approaches the game, (but) he’d like a few more runs. If you’re not scoring runs, the solution to that is you’re going to get dropped. That method he thinks is going to work for him, but sometimes you might have to tinker with that a little bit if you’re not scoring runs. I don’t know the answer … but I hope he comes out tonight and proves a lot of people wrong,” said Warner while speaking with Fox Cricket.
The Australian opener had joined IPL side Delhi Capitals in this year’s IPL at a base price of Rs 50 Lakhs as a replacement for pacer Lungi Ngidi. Fraser-McGurk had scored 330 runs in nine matches in IPL this year with a strike rate of 234.4 and had impressed the likes of David Warner at that time. While he made his ODI debut against West Indies earlier this year, the youngster has played in five T20Is in his brief international career so far.
Former Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist wants the opener to take inspiration from former Australian opener Mark Waugh. “He’s a better player, he’s more skilful than what he’s allowing himself to showcase. I think he’s selling himself a bit short. Mark Waugh used to say, ‘Just forget the scorecard for five overs, because if you can bat the other 45 overs, we’re fine.’ Imagine if he bats 50 overs, or 45 overs. It’s like when (Warner) was batting. Just pay a bit of respect to a new ball in a long-version game. He’s better than what he’s shown. He’s dynamite, he’s box office,” Gilchrist told Fox Cricket.
Waugh too voiced his opinion about the opener terming him as “not the finished article’. “He doesn’t have to hit every ball in the air, hit every ball for four. There’s plenty of time in a 50-over game to bat so I think he’s selling himself short. If he thinks his job is just to get a quick-fire 30 or 40, he’s got to think I want to bat 20 overs. So I think mindset wise, needs to change that. And probably technically, you know, he doesn’t move his feet a lot, which a lot of the modern-day players don’t so, you know, there might be a few little tweaks to his technique as well. He’s got the talent, but he’s obviously not the finished article.” Waugh told Codesports.
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