Jake Fraser-McGurk namedropped as David Warner's critics destroyed by Tom Moody amid veteran opener's superb T20 World Cup form

David Warner was one of the few players whose selection was questioned before the T20 World Cup 2024. Warner had a poor IPL 2024, where he scored just 168 runs in eight games at an average of 21.

But Warner has proved everybody wrong who had questioned his selection ahead of the attacking opener Jake Fraser-McGurk. Former Australian allrounder Tom Moody has come out in support of Warner and explained the reason for Warner's selection ahead of the inexperienced Jake Fraser-McGurk.

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Tom Moody explains David Warner's selection

Warner scored a vital 53 off 35 balls in Australia's opening Super 8 match against Bangladesh and remained unbeaten till the end. Australia lost two quick wickets of Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh but that didn't faze Warner a bit as he kept his composure to steer Australia through.

After the match, former Australian allrounder Tom Moody explained the reason for choosing David Warner ahead of Jake Fraser-McGurk. Moody stated that Warner's experience and calm head under pressure were a big need when Australia had lost two successive wickets in the span of two overs.

"David Warner has shown everyone in the world why Australia have picked him in the World Cup. A lot of people were questioning why isn't Fraser-McGurk is in the Australian squad? why is David Warner there? I think David Warner has again proved exactly why he is there. You needed a calm head in that situation," Moody explained.

Moody believes that Australia could have easily lost some more wickets had Warner not been there.

"They could have easily lost two or three wickets and suddenly were chasing the game. But he has done this on a couple of occasions in this World Cup where has been the mature player. When there has been a few challenging overs, he has managed to navigate them well," the former Australian cricketer said.

David Warner in superb form in T20 World Cup 2024

David Warner has been in good form in the T20 World Cup 2024 with 169 runs in five matches so far at an average of 42.25 and a strike rate of 148.24.

Despite pitches not being easy for batting, he has used all his experience and proved to be a vital player for Australia. In the last T20 World Cup of his career, he will be aiming to lift another title for Australia.

Meanwhile, Australia proved to be too much for Bangladesh in their first Super 8 match in Antigua. Bangladesh were restricted to 140-8, thanks to a hat-trick from Pat Cummins and an excellent spell of spin bowling by Adam Zampa.

In reply, Australia got off to a flying start from Travis Head and David Warner. Head was dismissed for 31 off 21 balls. Skipper Mitchell Marsh was also dismissed cheaply but David Warner and Glenn Maxwell made sure that Australia didn't lose any more wickets.

It started raining when Australia were 100-2 and the match didn't continue after that. Australia were ahead by 28 runs at the time of the rain stoppage and were declared winners by the DLS method.