Adam Gilchrist says David Warner and Mitchell Starc are under pressure

Adam Gilchrist says the Australian public will judge harshly any player who pulled out of the Windies tour but returns to the IPL.

Under pressure: Mitchell Starc (left) and David Warner (right) talk with New Zealand captain Kane Williamson in 2019 Picture: AAP

Adam Gilchrist says David Warner and Mitchell Starc are the two players under most pressure at the top of Australia’s cricket rankings.

He also believes the public will judge harshly any player who has skipped the West Indies tour if they choose to play the second half of the IPL later this year.

The former wicketkeeper said he was surprised by the Australian cricket rankings after revelations in The Australian that both Tim Paine and Marnus Labuschagne did not make the top five.

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Gilchrist said he thought the captain would accept his lower pay grade with good grace and the batsman would not be ranked low for long.

Pat Cummins, Steve Smith, David Warner, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood are the highest ranked and paid players in Australia.

Paine, as revealed by The Australian, is the lowest ranked Australian captain since central contracts were introduced during the Mark Taylor era.

Rankings are established by the number of formats a player plays, performance in the preceding 12 months and projected roles. Paine only plays Test cricket for Australia so is bumped below the three format players.

He does, however, receive a captain’s allowance, which would boost his salary significantly.

“I don’t think Tim Paine would argue too much that he is not in the top bracket, he does a wonderful job as Test captain, that’s the only format he plays at that level and when the rankings come out the amount of cricket you play, the type of cricket you play I don’t think he’ll argue too much about that,” Gilchrist told SEN radio this morning.

“The two names in the top five, if we are led to believe this, would have a little bit of pressure on them would be David Warner and Mitchell Starc.

“Warner’s (last 12 months) was injury affected but he’ll need to keep producing what he has done consistently for the best part of 10 years now so there is probably no reason to doubt that he is going to be able to do it.

“There will be little bit of a focus on him in regards to being ranked so highly and can he produce the goods, Mitchell Starc too, he was a bit off last summer and even with the white ball he didn’t quite have the venomous approach we are used to.”

Starc stood to earn up to $3m at the IPL this year but chose to skip the tournament as did Josh Hazlewood who withdrew to concentrate on Australian cricket.

The pair are in the West Indies preparing for the white-ball tour while half a dozen teammates rest at home after participating in the IPL.

“Steve Smith was the only one put down to an injury, the rest was at the players’ behest or decision,” Gilchrist told Kane Cornes on SEN.

“Similar to all sports around the world it is hard to know exactly what’s going inside the mind of these athletes with the quarantine situations, the lockdowns and bubbles, so I can’t really judge them on it, I have no real desire to try and question their motive or the intent of why they didn’t go but that will inevitably come, that public scrutiny and the public court of judgment, will come later on in the year when the IPL is forging ahead in the UAE and if these players make themselves available for that.

“That’s where I think they will be criticised, for playing for an IPL franchise having freshened up at the expense of their country. I don’t think they will, I think they’ll use this time to freshen up and have a full on assault into the World T20 and then the Ashes summer.”

Gilchrist believes Labuschagne will become a permanent white-ball player despite him not being included in the West Indies squad because of logistical complications.

“Marnus is so important in Test cricket,” he said. “He would be in the West Indies as part of the white ball team but it was just proving too difficult with him being in England playing county cricket and starting to do really well over there in the T20 format with three or four consecutive 50s for Glamorgan.

“He will feature in white ball cricket, he is just too good a cricketer and too hungry a cricketer to keep out of it, the quarantine and the bubble situations made it too difficult.”