Matt Short puts the pressure on selectors, Jake Fraser-McGurk to be David Warner’s replacement

David Warner was a rock at the top of the order for Australia’s white-ball teams for nearly 15 years. But who will be his long-term successor? The fight has never been hotter.

Who is David Warner’s long-term replacement as Australia’s white-ball opener?

A few months ago it probably appeared a straightforward matter, but what looked like a short answer is now a longer one with a Short twist.

When Aussie selectors named their 15-man squad for June’s ultimately failed Twenty20 World Cup campaign, the decision to bypass Jake Fraser-McGurk dominated public attention.

And it was easy to understand why given the Victorian turned South Australian phenom had exploded into his maiden Indian Premier League campaign, outshining Delhi Capitals teammates Warner and Mitch Marsh with four half-centuries in nine games at an astonishing strike rate of 234.

Yet peeling back a layer or two and there was an argument to be made that Fraser-McGurk had not even been the unluckiest player to miss selection in the Australians squad.

Jake Fraser-McGurk lit up the Indian Premier League, and looked to have made the first move on David Warner’s opening spot. Picture: AFP

The rival for that claim came from another Vic product whose own move to SA – at least in the Big Bash League – had ignited a slow-burning career.

Matt Short had claimed back-to-back BBL player of the year titles with the Adelaide Strikers and had been player of the match in Australia’s most recent T20 international before the squad was picked.

He’d already been on the fringes of World Cup selection for the 50-over event last year and his off-spinning ability was an extra string to the bow lacking in Fraser-McGurk’s nevertheless impressive arsenal.

But Short hadn’t been at the IPL. In a sliding doors moment, Fraser-McGurk had capitalised on the Melbourne Renegades’ poor BBL campaign, allowing him to play for the Capitals’ Emirati satellite team before the resumption of the domestic season in February.

Matt Short was crowned the BBL’s Player of the Tournament earlier this year. Picture: Getty

Fraser-McGurk’s blasts in Dubai were parlayed into an IPL deal under Ricky Ponting, and the rest was history. Short attracted interest from the UAE league too but didn’t have enough of a window to be cleared to travel after the Strikers pushed deep into the BBL finals.

Once Australia’s bid for a World Cup crown ended in damp St Vincent late in June, cricket faded deeper into the Winter background, swamped by the footy codes, Wimbledon and the Olympics.

So despite being in the US, July’s Major League Cricket season was very much off-Broadway, and the fact that Fraser-McGurk made just 81 runs in seven innings – even briefly losing his spot with the San Francisco Unicorns – did not generate much traction back home. Ditto for Short’s much more flattering output: 170 runs at 34 with a strike rate of 180.

And as far as international cricket goes, last week’s three-game stint in Scotland – though charming – was played for stakes commensurate with the comically small trophy handed to Marsh after Australia had completed a whitewash.

Matt Short has made the most of his opportunities in Australian colours. Picture: Getty

However it was a missed opportunity for Fraser-McGurk, who didn’t handle the relative lack of pace from the Scottish attack to make two ducks either side of a 16. He’d been afforded three straight matches as Short missed the Scotland series to be home for the birth of his first child with Olympian fiance Madi Wilson.

When the considerably higher-profile series against England began in Southampton in the early hours of Thursday morning (Australian time), it was Short who was given the first go alongside Travis Head at the top of the order. The pair plundered 86 runs in the power play against an attack led by Jofra Archer, with Short finishing with 41 from 26 balls playing second fiddle to Head (59 from 23).

It is a long way from over for Fraser-McGurk, with Australia likely to trial several different configurations across the remaining seven matches of the England tour (two T20s and five one-dayers).

All is not lost for Jake Fraser-McGurk – who remains a dynamic star of the future for Australia. Picture: AFP

Both men are also in the one-day international squad, and there is quite conceivably room for both men in the same team given Short has batted down the order in the past.

At the very least though it is food for thought for those who jumped to conclusion that Fraser-McGurk would simply slot into the Warner role, just as the left-hander had anointed on social media at the end of the World Cup.

This is not the only intriguing selection story either, with Xavier Bartlett’s side injury souring a 28-run win.

With Pat Cummins rested for the tour, Australia’s pace depth is being pushed given Nathan Ellis (hamstring) and Spencer Johnson (side) have already been ruled out of the rest of the series. Ben Dwarshuis has been sent over as cover.

It all serves to underscore the herculean effort of Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood to back up for seven straight Tests last season just weeks after they spearheaded the World Cup win in India.

Originally published as Matt Short puts the pressure on selectors, Jake Fraser-McGurk to be David Warner’s replacement