Matt Renshaw, on Friday, December 8, brought up a sparkling hundred for the Prime Minister’s XI in the warm-up match against Shan Masood’s Pakistan at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.
Renshaw isn’t a part of the Australian Test squad for the opening Test against Pakistan to be played from December 14 at the Perth Stadium. David Warner and Usman Khawaja are the designated openers for the home team.
But with his performance in the practice match, Renshaw has made a strong case for himself to be picked in the squad for the Melbourne and Sydney Tests if at all the hosts make any changes to their squad.
Warner, in the meantime, is set to take part in his farewell Test series. After the next three games, Australia need to find an apt opening partner for Khawaja. Renshaw, Marcus Harris and Cameron Bancroft are some of the contenders to take Warner’s position as the opener of the Australian Test team.
Bancroft made his Test debut back in 2017, but has been in and out of the team for a long time. In 10 Tests, the left-handed batter has notched 446 runs at an average of 26.23 and a strike-rate of 42.80 with three half-centuries and a top score of 82 not out to show for his efforts.
Renshaw hasn’t played a Test since taking part in the Lord’s Test against England in the Ashes way back in August 2019. Prior to the match against Pakistan, in 145 first-ckass matches, Renshaw racked up 9396 runs at an average of 38.98 with 25 hundreds to his name.
