David Warner sees Test potential in white ball successor Jake Fraser-McGurk

Jake Fraser-McGurk averages less than 20 in first-class cricket but retired Australian great David Warner has no doubt the big hitting young gun can become his successor in all formats, writes BEN HORNE.

David Warner says he sees plenty of himself in Jake Fraser-McGurk and believes the man he has anointed as his white ball successor can also break into the Test team.

Australia’s greatest all-format cricketer who is now retired from all international cricket has taken 22-year-old showstopper Fraser-McGurk under his wing, with the pair spending much of the T20 World Cup in the West Indies riding planes and buses together side-by-side.

Fraser-McGurk currently averages 18.96 in red ball cricket, but Warner says a breakout season in the Sheffield Shield for South Australia could change everything and put him on the path to being a Test match sensation.

A maiden first-class ton for the Redbacks earlier this year was the first step for Fraser-McGurk defying those doubting his technique for red ball batting.

Most of all, Warner loves the fact that the white ball phenomenon who will have literally tens of millions of dollars thrown at him from T20 franchises around the world, is still prioritising a desire to one day wear the baggy green – just like he did when he broke the mould as a young six-hitting star.

Jake Fraser-McGurk could make millions on the T20 circuit. Picture: Arun Sankar/AFP

“Will he play Test cricket? I think he’ll have to have a breakout year in the next 12-18 months to prove himself,” Warner said.

“I think we’ve all had to score hundreds to get your name up there to warrant that.

“Hopefully when it comes to Shield cricket this year, he sticks at that.

“There’s going to be a lot of money thrown around to him for these Twenty20 leagues and it’s upon him and his management to keep him focused and aligned with what he wants to do.

“As an Australian, it can be disappointing that some guys don’t want to aspire to the baggy green, but sometimes people just don’t have that aspiration, or they think they’re not good enough – so they might go into the white ball stuff.

“But I hope he does (play Test cricket). I know he’s thinking like that.

“He wants to play red ball cricket so it’ll definitely be good to see.”

Warner confirmed he is keen to join Fraser-McGurk by returning to this summer’s Big Bash League and declared he won’t be signing with anyone except the Sydney Thunder.

Fraser-McGurk is a no-brainer to replace Warner in the T20 format, given how close he was to forcing his way into the World Cup squad following his bumper Indian Premier League debut.

His looming right-hand, left-hand combination at the top of the order with Travis Head will be one to savour – with Head rocketing to No.1 on the list of international T20 batsmen.

Warner has bonded with Fraser-McGurk and believes he has the subtleties to his game to adjust to 50-over cricket as well – impressed by the commitment he showed to self-improvement by switching states from Victoria to South Australia.

Jake Fraser-McGurk has turned his career around since leaving Victoria for South Australia. Picture: Jason McCawley/Getty Images

“It was probably a good option to move when he did. He has gone back to batting the way that he wants to bat,” Warner said.

“Speaking to the other guys, (Australian coach) Andrew McDonald said the same thing. They’ve seen him. They’ve seen the talent.

“Then he went sort of a bit AWOL with trying to be too technical and he’s come out and just played the way he wants to and he’s played with freedom which is great.

“He reminds me a little bit of myself when I was a young kid. He enjoys his life, takes cricket serious, but there’s a lifestyle to that as well.

“I just want him to keep embracing that. Times have changed from when I first started with all these social media things, so hopefully he doesn’t read too much into that and just sticks to what he knows best.

“That is scoring runs.

“And that’s the biggest currency you can have.

“I think he’s definitely got the ability to (open in 50-over cricket as well). He can lock it in, and a bit like myself, when you understand how to play the game of 50-over cricket, he’ll have a fantastic career, especially batting in Australia, the best wickets in the world.

“I got dropped (from the ODI team) after seven games because I didn’t really understand how to play the game of one-day cricket. That’s one thing that I learnt from Twenty20.”

Warner is ready for another Big Bash, by which time he’ll be 38, and is also slated to play franchise tournaments in Canada and the Cayman Islands in the coming months.

“I definitely want to play. I want to commit to giving back to the game. I took a long time out of it (the BBL). I enjoyed it last year,” Warner said.

“Hopefully we should be signing soon, which is good. The game owes us nothing. We owe the game a lot.”

Originally published as David Warner sees Test potential in white ball successor Jake Fraser-McGurk