Watch: David Warner was dropped early on by Usama Mir during the Australia-Pakistan 2023 World Cup game on Friday (October 20).
Mir, who replaced Shadab Khan in the XI, and was playing his first World Cup game, did not have the best start to his World Cup career, dropping an easy catch of Warner in the fifth over of the innings.
The opener was batting on 10 off 10 at the time when he got a top edge off a Shaheen short ball. The ball went straight to Mir at mid-on, who had his hands cupped close to his chest so the ball could nestle in safely. However, the ball slipped between his hands and his chest, much to the horror of the Pakistan team.
Simon Doull, on commentary, was not impressed with the effort. “Mir, you’ve been given an opportunity in the team and you do that. That’s not how you want to start your World Cup debut.”
Matthew Hayden chipped in by saying, “This was straight in the air and you take these 10 out of 10 times in warm-ups. [Mir] got his hands really low, so the technical aspect of that is his hands were below his eyes. Even if you take the ball with the palms upright, you still need to give some release to your hands, some release. As soon as your hands are tight against your chest like that, and you can’t see it, it’s a recipe for disaster. Poor fielding.”
Warner raced away to his fourth consecutive ODI century v Pakistan in a double-century opening stand, to add to Mir’s woes.
Watch the drop catch by Pakistan here:
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