Cameron Bancroft should be the leading contender to replace David Warner

Four years after his last Test match, the runs continue to flow for one “incredible” batter as David Warner’s retirement looms.

If run-scoring truly is the standout selection criteria, then Cameron Bancroft should walk back into the Test team when David Warner hangs up his baggy green in January.

West Australian coach Adam Voges said there was simply nothing more the opener could do to resume his 10-Test career that has twice been brought to an abrupt halt.

The first time was after his suspension for taking a piece of sandpaper to the ball in South Africa in 2018, and the second time was as the fall guy for top-order issues during the 2019 Ashes when he scored 44 runs in four innings.

That was 26 more runs than Warner scored in the same games and even after piling on a mammoth 945 runs in last summer’s Sheffield Shield, 293 runs more than anyone else, with four hundreds, Bancroft was overlooked for this year’s Ashes tour, with Marcus Harris preferred.

Through the opening three rounds of the Shield this summer, Bancroft has taken up where he left off, piling on 370 runs, with two hundreds, at an average of 92.

Cameron Bancroft keeps making runs for Western Australia. Picture: Mark Brake/Getty Images

In comparison, Harris has made just 21 runs in four innings, at an average of just over 5, albeit on trickier wickets in first Queensland and Melbourne than Bancroft has endured, with two of his three games at the WACA in Perth.

It has created a gulf regardless, with Queenslander Matt Renshaw, who returned to the Test team as a middle-order batter with just a single innings and was also on standby in England, elevating his own chances with solid early-season returns.

His 271 runs for the Bulls, including a century, has Renshaw sixth on the Shield run-scoring list.

Warner, who has announced his intention to retire from Test cricket after three matches against Pakistan this home summer and ahead of two more against the West Indies, has spoken glowingly of Harris, who has been in and around the Test squad in recent series, seemingly as next in line.

Bancroft last played for Australia during the 2019 Ashes. Picture: Lindsey Parnaby / AFP

But Voges said Bancroft’s consistency over first last summer and now the early stages of this one should make him hard for selectors to ignore when they pick a team in January without Warner in it.

“He’s doing all he possibly can do,” Voges said after a second-innings 100 from Bancroft in Adelaide last weekend guided his team to another Shield win.

“He was outstanding all of last season, he has started this season like he finished last year. He is the premier form batsman of the competition.

“His consistency and the way he has gone about his run-scoring has been incredible.”

For Bancroft, national selection remains just a by-product of getting wins for WA, and he’s not losing sight of that as his goal with a “come what may” attitude guiding his imperious form.

“It’s been nice to get some runs. To be honest, I have just been trying to set a really good platform for us,” he said.

“We have a lot to play for this year, we want to continue that wining success, that’s been where my focus is.

“I just try to go out the with an open mind, play according to the conditions and come what may.”

Originally published as Cameron Bancroft should be the leading contender to replace David Warner