David Warner to open for Australia at T20 World Cup, confirms Aaron Finch

David Warner, who recently lost the captaincy and eventually his place at Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH), will open the batting for Australia at the ICC T20 World Cup, skipper Aaron Finch confirmed on Wednesday.

Warner lost SRH's captaincy during the India leg of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. Following his scores of 0 and 2 in the UAE leg, Warner was dropped from the side and the Aussie batsman even hinted that he may not play again for SRH this season.

However, before leaving for the UAE, Australian captain Finch backed his opening partner, saying that Warner is "one of the best players to ever play the game for Australia" and will come good at the tournament.

The Super 12 stage of the T20 World Cup is scheduled to kickstart with the clash between Australia and South Africa on Oct. 23 at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. The tournament, however, is due to go underway on Oct. 17 in Oman with the preliminary matches.

"Yep, absolutely," Finch told the media when asked if Warner will open the batting with him.

"He's one of the best players to ever play the game for Australia. I've got no doubt that his preparation, while he would love to be playing for Hyderabad no doubt, I know that he's still training away. He'll be good to go," added Finch.

Finch also said that Australia, who are yet to win the T20 World Cup, are one of the contenders for the title this time despite most players in the squad having little preparation. Many of Australia's first-choice players opted to give the recent white-ball tours of West Indies and Bangladesh a miss and also sit out the second phase of the IPL 2021.

While Finch is coming off very scare game time after having knee surgery recently, Australia's spearhead Pat Cummins has not played a match since April. All-rounder Marcus Stoinis is battling a hamstring strain and Steve Smith has only played a bit-part role for IPL side Delhi Capitals.

"The two warmup games and the lead-in to the World Cup is going to be really crucial. It's a difficult one because training indoors or training just in the nets is obviously no comparison obviously to game intensity. But I've got a lot of confidence in the experience of the group.

We've got guys who have come off long layoffs before, we've got guys who have come off injuries before. And it's not really all that much different when you're trying to get yourself up to speed quickly," added Finch.