Test squad: David Warner, Alex Carey survive as pace bolter gets call up

Australian selector George Bailey questions why Mitchell Johnson would attack him and the selection of David Warner.

David Warner, right, with Glenn Maxwell lift aloft the World Cup trophy Picture: Getty Images

David Warner survived the scrutiny of selectors and will play the first Tests of the summer against Pakistan, but it is a former local quick and not the visiting ones who seem most intent on dragging the opener down.

Warner was named in a 14-man squad that includes exciting pace prospect Lance Morris amid a flurry of controversy on Sunday. Alex Carey saw off any perceived threat from Josh Inglis to hold his place as wicketkeeper.

There is no spare batter, but all-rounder Cameron Green has been named alongside incumbent Mitch Marsh for first-Test duties against Pakistan on December 14 in Perth.

Mitchell Johnson’s extraordinary attack on Warner in his newspaper column is reminiscent of his approach to bowling. The former quick savaged Warner and selectors over the opener’s announcement that he wanted to retire following the Sydney Test, even speculating that fans might take sandpaper to wave him off.

Warner did not respond, but selector George Bailey said he had seen snippets of the column and that he hoped Johnson “was OK”.

The former teammate of both players said Warner had been selected because “ultimately we think he is in our best XI players to win the first Test”.

When Justin Langer stood down last year, amid tensions with senior players, Johnson was one of the harshest critics of the team including captain Pat Cummins whom he labelled “gutless” and accused of white-anting the coach.

Cummins dismissed the attack at the time, saying “he’s just standing up for his mate, I absolutely disagreed with what he said”, revealing he had not heard from the bowler. Johnson words, however, were not received well by any in the side. “The baggy green is hyped as the most revered symbol in Australian sport,” Johnson wrote at the time. “But what does it stand for now? In the wake of the disgraceful white-anting of Langer as coach, which led to his resignation on Saturday, it stands for selfishness.”

WA quick Lance Morris is in the squad Picture: Getty Images

Former opener Matthew Hayden has been a similarly vocal critic of the treatment of Langer, but Johnson is a former teammate of most senior players in this group. He batted with Cummins when the teenager hit the winning runs in his first Test in South Africa.

The former quick played in the 2015 World Cup and 2013-14 Ashes clean sweep with Warner and selector Bailey whose decision to stand by Warner he questioned.

“His (Warner’s) past three years in Test cricket have been ordinary, with a batting average closer to what a tailender would be happy with,” he wrote in The West Australian.

“It’s the ball-tampering disgrace in South Africa that many will never forget. Although Warner wasn’t alone in Sandpapergate, he was at the same time a senior member of the team and someone who liked to use his perceived power as a ‘leader’.

“Does this really warrant a swan song, a last hurrah against Pakistan that was forecast a year in advance as if he was bigger than the game and the Australian cricket team?”

Johnson accused Warner of not having “owned” the scandal and suggests “Bunnings would sell out of sandpaper” if fans were urged to give him a send off as Steve Waugh was given when the crowd waved red handkerchiefs.

The fast bowler questions if Bailey is too close to some of the players and had come into the job “too quickly”.

George Bailey, right, and Mitchell Johnson ahead of the 2015 World Cup. Picture: Sarah Reed.

“If someone can show me how being distant from the team and what the players are going through and unaware of what plans are within the team and the coaching staff and how that is more beneficial, I’d be all ears,” Bailey said.

The selector said the side could face the same issue replacing the long-term opener as it did in replacing Shane Warne.

Things got personal earlier when Johnson questioned Warner’s place in the Ashes side and criticised the batsman’s wife for her comments on Fox Sports’ The Back Page .

Candice Warner had asked who selectors would bring in “that’s better” if Warner was dropped and Johnson responded in his column that he found it “weird and cringey”. Warner was angry and let Johnson know in a private message, but the former quick took the battle public again on the weekend.

Johnson is not the only former player upset by the treatment of Langer and that fall out reverberates still around the edges of the game.

Mitchell Johnson talks to David Warner and Steve Smith during an Ashes Test in England in 2015 Picture: Getty Images

Hayden, like Ricky Ponting, was a vocal critic of the way the axing was handled.

The attacks opened a rift between some of the former players with the current side and coaching group which some have navigated more diplomatically than others.

Hayden revived the controversy during the World Cup when he said he would not coach Australia because of the way it treated Langer.

Carey survives despite losing his place in the ODI side to Inglis during the World Cup campaign and appearing to struggle after the incident at Lord’s when the run-out of Jonny Bairstow had his character questioned by the English public and commentators.

Bailey said there had been “zero discussion” about replacing Carey with Inglis.

Cricketers Association chief Todd Greenberg said last week the organisation had helped Carey in the wake of the ugly attacks on him and his family.

“Like all of us, he’s a human being as well,’’ Greenberg told SEN Afternoons. “He’s got his own family issues and his own personal agenda, it’s not easy being criticised, particularly in the heat of the storm that happened over at Lord’s.’’

The side plays three Tests against Pakistan with the first Test starting in Perth on December 14, the second on Boxing Day at the MCG and the last at the SCG beginning on January 3.

The team then begins a two-Test series against the West Indies.

Test squad

Pat Cummins (c), Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Cameron Green, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Marsh, Lance Morris, Steve Smith, Mitchell Starc, David Warner