Former Australian captain Tim Paine has looked into his crystal ball ahead of the 2023/24 home summer.
While David Warner is expected to earn a farewell season with three Tests against Pakistan and two against the West Indies, Paine was asked who he felt was next in line to partner Usman Khawaja at the top of the order.
If Warner’s form begins to fail, selectors could make a switch at the top and Paine feels that Victoria’s Marcus Harris is first in line.
While Harris is currently leading the race, Paine believes we’ll truly find out who the next contender is after the opening month of the Sheffield Shield season.
“I think we're lucky because we get a start of the Shield season,” Paine said on SEN Tassie Breakfast.
“I think who's sitting in one right now is Marcus Harris and rightly so.
“He's scored a lot of runs over the years to get in that position.
“I used to say this to people all the time when you're a wicketkeeper when they, there's this always a pecking order of, ‘Who's number one or who's number two? Who's next in?’.
“You want to be next in when the spot is available.
“Marcus Harris has been number two opener ready to go, the next man in for two years now, the spot has not been open.
“So, he's going to have to start the Shield year because if Matthew Renshaw gets two hundreds in the first Shield games, it could be him.
“If Cameron Bancroft scores runs in the Australia A series coming up and then starts the Shield season well, it could be him.
“There are two Tassie kids down here that could do it, but right now it's Marcus Harris, but there’s no guarantee given that we've got three or four Shield games before that first Test.”
Australia next play T20 cricket in South Africa with a three-match series beginning on August 31.
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