Defining moments are strange things. Some people undeniability them ‘Sliding Doors’ moments. Those moments where the goody of retrospect provides you with the two separate paths that lay surpassing you.
Steve Waugh had such a moment when in 1999. In a test series that was surprisingly in the balance, Waugh made the visualization to waif Shane Warne who was not long when from shoulder surgery and struggling. But off the when of stuff dumped, Warne went on to reignite his career and turn in some wondrous performances with the wittiness as Australia came from nowhere to win the 1999 World Cup.
It was a visualization that had real ramifications for Australian cricket. A tough visualization that Waugh is now lauded for making but at the time was questioned. A similar visualization now sits in front of Pat Cummins.
Love him or hate him, David Warner will go lanugo as a unconfined of Australian cricket and will be remembered for twenty-plus test hundreds. The squint on Cameron Whites squatter all those years ago when Warner went ballistic in that T20 game at the MCG will wilt iconic with Warners arrival.
A brute of a cricketer at his best, in Australia where the vellicate is true and he could trust his skills, he was at times unbeatable. The thing is though his time has come, and Cummins needs to show that he can see that.
Although there are far too many times in Australian cricket where this reality isnt obvious, no one should be worthier than the game. At any level, let vacated the highest, cricketers should be judged on their performances and nothing else. Once those decisions are made it is up to those within the group to make the team the weightier it can be.
David Warner. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
When youre flying you should get selected. Good form should buy you some time to prove yourself but then poor form should sooner spend all the enshroud you have built up. No matter who you are, there has to be a moment when your time is up and you are pushed aside. A visualization that really shouldnt be up to the individual, It should be up to the leadership.
For David Warner, that time is now.
Like Waugh all those years ago, Cummins is yonder from home in a high-stakes series with his when versus the wall. Yes, believe it or not, the Frank Worrell Trophy was once a high-stakes series. He needs to know that selection will be vital in his efforts to reinvigorate his team to rencontre in a races that isnt over yet. Almost, but not yet. He needs to weigh up whether his superstar veteran can come good right now or whether his volitional is unquestionably increasingly likely to succeed.
Travis Head is a lot like Warner. Stands on the wrong side of the bat and likes to hit the wittiness hard. He is no technical masterpiece but has shown a liking for stuff in a fight. Hes not a natural opener in red-ball cricket, yet neither was Warner all those years ago.
However, the top of the order may well be the horse he was born to ride. Often opportunity is all people need to show the world what they are really capable of and thats what Cummins could offer Head now. Unshut with Head in Delhi, let him wade Shami and Seraj when the wittiness is nonflexible and get Australia yonder to a flyer, and try to put the three spinners under some pressure with such an approach.
Travis Head. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
This of undertow shouldnt midpoint the end for Warner unless he wants it to be. Just as it didnt midpoint the end for Warne. Although it did make him think well-nigh it. If Cummins makes the visualization to tropical one door and unshut flipside it may just be the spark that the ageing Warner needs to find form with a bang.
It could motivate him to take on Broad in the Ashes and then tee it up in the World Cup.
On of the key parts of leadership is knowing when you must lead. Cummins is in tuition of a team that has to come when from a thumping. Few people outside the walls of their changerooms are giving them any hope of coming back. A leader in these situations needs to be worldly-wise to see the possible futures that lay surpassing their team. They need to then be unflinching unbearable to put their team on a path of the weightier possible journey.
They need to make sure they walk through the right door.
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