David Warner in doubt for Adelaide Test

Concerns are growing over David Warner’s fitness for Thursday’s Test at Adelaide Oval with the opener struggling to recover from a rib injury.

David Warner grimaces during a limited session in the Adelaide Oval nets

Concerns are growing over David Warner’s fitness for Thursday’s Test match at Adelaide Oval with the opener struggling to recover from a painful rib injury.

Warner looked stiff and limited in his movement as he took throwdowns from batting coach Michael Di Venuto in the nets on Tuesday evening.

The batter was hit by a short ball from Ben Stokes during his first innings 94 at Brisbane and taken for scans after the game.

While no break was detected he suffered significant bruising and did not field or bat again in the match.

Australia has already lost Josh Hazlewood who has been ruled out with a side strain but is expected to be fit for the third Test.

Warner flew to Adelaide ahead of the team to reunite with the family he has not seen since October.

He took some throwdowns in the nets, but was restricted in his stroke play. While Marcus Harris, Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne faced the fast bowlers, a concerned-looking Warner gestured towards his ribs during a conversation with coach Justin Langer and physical performance coach Aaron Kellett. He then left the session early.

He is in a great deal of pain and is restricted in his movements and it is understood he would not be able to throw if he does play.

It is a blow for the side and the 35-year-old, who is missing a lot of cricket in the twilight years of his career.

Warner was suspended in March 2018 and did not return to the Test team until the Ashes in August 2019. A torn groin muscle saw him manage just two of the four Tests Australia has played in the past 23 months.

While there had been talk of emerging openers Bryce Street and Henry Hunt being brought into the squad, Usman Khawaja is already with the team and is the likely replacement for his former partner.

Khawaja has not played for Australia since being dropped after the Headingley Test in the 2019 Ashes. The Queensland captain has dropped himself down the order to allow the likes of Hunt more exposure in first-class cricket and batted at No.5 for Australia A while the emerging pair took the new ball.

Fitness of key players is also one of England’s many concerns leading into the second Test, but all-rounder Ben Stokes worked into his routine in the nets on Tuesday and Ollie Robinson also looked to be moving well.

Stokes has hardly played any red-ball cricket in the past few months through injury and had a limited preparation. He jarred his knee in the first Test, but stuck to the task.

Robinson, who bowled well in Brisbane, left the field for scans early in the game but was cleared of any injury and returned to bowl later.

England is still smarting over the loss of five World Test Championship points and every player wearing a 100 per cent match fee penalty for a slow over rate. Australia essentially missed the final of the first championship after being docked five points last summer.

The push to get through overs makes the selection of a spinner more critical, but Joe Root denies the over rate issue will effect selection leading into the Adelaide Test.

“It doesn’t influence selection,” he said on Tuesday. “I think when we are that far behind the over rate we have to take it, we have to be quicker, we know that.

“We want the game to be moving forward all the time and don’t want it to slow down.

“I’m not trying to make excuses (but) with the lack of preparation it was probably a little bit more challenging, especially for an English team coming into this heat and these conditions made it a little bit trickier for us as a bowling group. But we have to be quicker and we are fully aware of that.

“We’ve been stung not just financially. The thing that hurt most was losing those points. That’s a lot of points, especially when you play longer series like we do generally within the Test Championship. Losing chunks of points out of that can really hurt you.

“It’s something that gets discussed and will continue to get discussed.”

Meanwhile, English coach Chris Silverwood revealed the extraordinary lengths the visitors have gone to in preparation for dealing with disaster in Australia, including the possibility of losing a wicket first ball — which they did when Rory Burns was bowled by Mitchell Starc.

“It was quiet in the dressing-room when it happened, as you can imagine,” he said. “We do a certain amount of planning around what ifs – what if we lost a wicket first ball, what if we drop a catch in the first over. And try to make it – if not normal – but ‘OK, we expected this, let’s move forward’. So we’d done a bit of that anyway. But equally you can see the affect it has on Australia with their tails up. They were flying at that point. The first ball of an Ashes game is massive and they got it right.”