Unlike India‚ who are about to depart‚ the importance of the warm-up game has not been lost on the touring Australians. So much significance has been attached to the three-day game against SA A at Willowmoore Park in Benoni on Thursday that Australia will field their strongest side. David Warner‚ who captained the T20 side to a tri-series final win against New Zealand on Wednesday‚ is the only sure starter missing from the team. He will arrive in SA at the weekend while Usman Khawaja and Cameron Bancroft will form a makeshift opening partnership. Peter Handscomb‚ who was dropped for Mitchell Marsh after the second Ashes Test in Adelaide‚ will bat at No3. The rest of the team remains unchanged from the unit that crushed England by an innings and 123 runs in Sydney in January. Australian bowling coach David Saker said continuity was a necessity as this game is their only warm-up before next week’s first Test at Kingsmead in Durban. "We’ve come off a pretty big Test series in Australia...
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