Who should follow Warner out of the losing T20 World Cup team?

As David Warner was presented with a bottle of Grange in a box signed by teammates and support staff acknowledging his retirement as Australia’s greatest all-format player, the wider debate about how to refresh the team has begun.

The only Australian to play 100 matches in all three formats, Warner, 37, posted a shot of himself and his likely replacement, Jake Fraser-McGurk, 22, having a farewell drink in St Lucia with palm trees in the background.

“All yours now champion,” Warner wrote on Instagram, signalling the start of inevitable change.

Australia’s first official coach, Bob Simpson, was a great believer that fielding was the barometer of a team and flogged his young players, dragging Australia out of the nadir of the mid-1980s to shock everyone – including themselves – by winning the 1987 World Cup.

Captain Allan Border recalls doing fielding drills in a hotel car park at the beginning of that campaign in India as New Zealand players walked past and climbed into a bus to go sightseeing.

David Warner passes the baton to Jake Fraser-McGurk.Credit: Instagram

Under the Simpson mantra, the first thing to go in a good team is fielding as ageing, successful players don’t or can’t do the work they once did to stay on top of their game.

It happened with the West Indies after they rampaged through the late ’70s and ’80s as the most untouchable force ever seen in Test cricket. Is it happening to Australia now?

Australia’s fielding during the T20 World Cup was atrocious, dropping 15 catches to have by far the worst catching percentage in the tournament. Captain Mitchell Marsh, 32, dropped four of them, including an absolute sitter against India in a game Australia simply had to win and didn’t.

In Australia’s unexpected 2021 T20 World Cup triumph Warner was player of the tournament and Marsh was a major force, blazing Australia to the title with a player-of-the-match performance in the final.

However, in this tournament Marsh was modest at best. His top score was 37 and came in the last game against India, raising concerns that captaincy of the T20 side had taken the edge off his game.

Ashton Agar was just one Australian to drop a catch during the fruitless World Cup campaign.Credit: AP

Only one player in the side that lost to India on Tuesday (AEST) was under 30, and it showed. Yet even that player, Tim David, 28, has questions about how successful he was as a designated finisher.

Glenn Maxwell, 35, can be devastating but had a disappointing tournament after a poor IPL. Mitchell Starc, one of Australia’s finest all-format players, is 34 and is unlikely to see another World Cup. He failed to make his usual impact in this tournament.

New one-day keeper Josh Inglis should have been preferred to Matthew Wade, 36.

Talented all-rounder Cameron Green must be given an extended run in white ball cricket to so he can loosen up and play with freedom.

Glenn Maxwell had a disappointing tournamentCredit: Getty Images

The selectors have always backed experience, and it has paid dividends. Australia won the World Test Championship final and one-day World Cup last year with imposing performances against India.

Their attention in the constant cycle of International Cricket Council events turns to the Champions Trophy one-day tournament – a mini World Cup scheduled for next year in Pakistan – but the question of age and experience remains.

Australia’s best bowler against India, Josh Hazlewood, believes this approach should continue.

“They come around pretty quick; the T20 World Cups every two years. I don’t know, there might be a couple of changes … you’d think it’d be a natural slow change, I don’t think it’ll be anything drastic,” the 33-year-old said after the India match.

“A lot of the guys are still playing franchise cricket if they’re not playing for Australia. So they’re available to be picked. There’s some class players in our team and we have a couple on the bench as well.”

The Twenty20 World Cup may be a fickle tournament, where success and failure are decided by small margins.

After holding their nerve to win the title for the first time in 2021, Australia have failed to qualify for the semi-finals in the last two, hosted by Australia in 2022 and now the West Indies and USA.

Change is inevitable. How much is the question?

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