Smith And Warner Return Creates Problems As Well

Tristan Lavalette explains why the defending World Cup champions may find difficulty in deciding where to play their returning stars.

The faithful waited a long time for this moment.The pain of the betrayal from the ball-tampering debacle had eroded. Everyone just wanted to see their fallen hero rise again.

Steve Smith finally made his return for Australia and was greeted by thunderous applause from the strong 1,000-plus crowd – considering it was a working day – when he came to the crease.

After all the tears and humiliation, Smith’s road back to redemption started in the staid setting of the small Allan Border Field in the Brisbane suburbs against a second-string New Zealand side.

He was predictably nervous and struggled to find his rhythm but seeing Smith stroke trademark effortless cover drives created a lump in the throat of fans. David Warner – such a polarising figure – didn’t quite summon the same goodwill but nonetheless conjured plenty of cheers through an array of muscular boundaries.

The left-hander bullied bowlers in a welcome sign for Australia’s World Cup defence. It was a reminder of happier times when Warner and Smith were national treasures.

Make no mistake, despite the successful returns of the former leaders, it’s a tricky situation for Australia’s brains trust who have to delicately reintegrate two modern giants with the World Cup literally just a few weeks away.

Results are pretty trivial in warm-up matches, but Australia were fairly underwhelming against New Zealand in the opening two games. They luckily won the opener by one-wicket thanks to the tail and then were thrashed in game two by seven wickets.