David Warner to open in Australia's first World Cup match if fully fit on match eve

If David Warner pulls up all right on Friday, he is set to open the innings for Australia in their first World Cup outing on Saturday against Afghanistan.

Struggling with a sore right glute, Warner was put through a fitness test at the start of Australia’s training session Bristol on Thursday. Following the test, Warner suggested he felt much better than on Wednesday – when his lateral movements were hampered – and went on to have a hit in the nets, during which he didn’t look in apparent discomfort.

Batting, though, has not been a problem. Nor has running in straight lines. It is when he has to field or turn sharply or make sideways movements that he has complained of pain. Overnight pain medication has done some work for him, but Australia still face the dilemma of whether to risk aggravating it against Afghanistan. The trade-off is losing out on an opportunity of easing him back in in a less challenging game.

However, one decision has been made for sure. There had been speculation around whether Warner would walk back into the opening slot occupied by Usman Khawaja. Australia tried Warner at No. 3 in the unofficial warm-up against New Zealand in Brisbane. He returned to the top of the order in the official warm-up against England before missing the one against Sri Lanka.

Justin Langer, the Australia coach, acknowledged there had been some indecision, but said Warner was going to open the innings if and when he was fit. That is a decision, Langer said, they want to make as soon as possible because they want to be fair to the player missing out: Khawaja or Shaun Marsh.

“We’ll have a pretty good idea today, how he moves and how he pulls up in the morning,” Langer said before the start of the training session. “But what I have expressed to him is it’s really important to be fair to the other players, we don’t want to be getting to Saturday morning and making a call.

“When a couple of other guys are wondering if they are going to play or not going to play, the earlier we can make the decision the better. Hopefully we can make it tonight where he says ‘yep, I’m ready to go’ or ‘I’m not sure’ if he pulls up sore in the morning. But the earlier the better. He knows that, and collectively we’re really strong on that.”

Langer emphasised the importance of selecting Warner only if he is fully fit, lest he aggravate the injury.

“He had throwdowns yesterday, and was just a bit sore in his right glute,” Langer said. “He’s obviously desperate to play, he would love to play. Like all 15 players would, he is jumping out of his skin, his energy is up, and he’s laughing a lot, which is a really good sign.

“But we’ve just got to make sure he can move, particularly in the field. Batting seems okay, running in a straight line seems okay, but going side to side we’ve just got to make sure we don’t aggravate it.”