Warner turns up heat on Australia’s ‘misfiring’ top-order

Sydney: Australian opener David Warner has turned up the heat on the team’s misfiring top-order as he admitted that the Aussie Test side has become ‘too reliant on rescue missions’ from Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey. It comes after in the recent Test series loss to South Africa, Australia repeatedly stumbled out of the blocks, slumping to 3-40, 3-91, 3-55, 2-81 and 3-34 in their five innings against the Proteas.

Warner, however, has delivered a wake-up call to Australia``s top order, saying the Clarke-Hussey alliance can no longer be a scoring crutch with important Test assignments in India and England on the horizon. “It is something where we can``t keep relying on them (Clarke and Hussey). As a top-four unit we have had a sit down and chat together about what we have to do now. We have to step up and in the top four we want at least one of us going on to make a big scores,” News.com.au quoted Warner, as saying. According to the report, Warner revealed that on the eve of first Test against Sri Lanka, Australia``s newly-constructed top four - comprising himself, Ed Cowan, Phil Hughes and Shane Watson - had convened to discuss the poor starts putting pressure on the middle order. “With me, Ed (Cowan) and ``Hughesy``, our main focus is getting to the 30th and 40th overs and not letting that middle-order come in against the new ball. We have been three-for-not-many the last 12 months and it``s disappointing to see that. We have to keep working as hard as we can to build partnerships,” he added. The chronic loss of early wickets exposed Clarke and Hussey to the new ball, although the veteran pair responded by blasting four centuries and 871 runs between them to haul Australia out of trouble, the report said. ANI