Warner praises 'selfless' Handscomb

Australia opener David Warner has commended teammate Peter Handscomb for his "selfless", though ultimately perilous, determination to help him reach triple-figures in Chittagong.

Handscomb was cruelly run out in sight of his first century abroad on day three of the second Test, having backed up one step too many at the non-striker's end with Warner one run away from a ton of his own.

The right-hander was caught short by a sharp piece of fielding from star allrounder Shakib Al Hasan, whose direct hit saw the Australian fall for 82.

"It was very selfless of him," Warner said of Handscomb.

"As I said to him in the change rooms, it's one of those things where you try and help your teammate out. 

"We did speak about it between the overs … he said to me, 'I'm looking for it' (the single). 

"It was one of those great pieces of fielding, They (Bangladesh fielders) were very close, I knew that they were close and my (call of) 'no' probably wasn't early enough."

It came a day after Handscomb was pushed to the point of dry-retching on the side of the pitch, forcing a brief break in play as he battled to regain some strength to reach stumps.

The 25-year-old won plaudits on Tuesday from coach Darren Lehmann for the "gutsy" effort, and Warner admitted there were parallels with another Victorian's fighting subcontinental innings.

"I saw a couple of tweets from Dean Jones," Warner said with a smile, well aware of the former Bushranger's gruesome double-century in the 1986 Tied Test. "He must have had a hard time in Madras.

"Pete is an exceptional player, an exceptional athlete. But it can get to anyone. Just being out there and we were turning those twos into ones, it was quite funny in some senses. 

"It was really hard to run between wickets, it was hard to suck in that oxygen and the fluids we were trying to get into us, you literally felt like you were going to bring that back up. 

"They're extreme conditions for both teams."

Handscomb had long been touted as one the finest players of spin in Australia well before his Test debut last summer, and while he didn't score a breakthrough hundred away from home, his knock was confirmation of his ability to tame subcontinental tracks.

While his returns on Australia's tour of India were steady (198 runs at 28.28 with one match-saving half-century in Ranchi),  if not spectacular, his footwork to the Bangladesh bowlers was a feature of his knock in Chittagong.

It's a skill that has its origins in the backyard and in the nets, where his father challenged him to be nimble at the crease as a youngster.

"That was just something my dad taught me when I was a lot younger," Handscomb said on an Australia A trip to India in 2015. "We just used to go down to the nets and get on the bowling machine, and he used to just say, run at everything.

"He'd throw the ball, didn't matter how fast, I'd use my feet and get down the wicket and basically just try and cope with it. 

"And then over the years, obviously adjusted my game, kept practicing it, kept getting throws, and as you work through the grades, work through the levels, it's just a confidence thing now to try and use my feet almost every ball."

Australia in Bangladesh 2017

Australia squad: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Hilton Cartwright, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Glenn Maxwell, Steve O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade.

Bangladesh squad: Mushfiqur Rahim (c), Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Imrul Kayes, Shakib Al Hasan, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Liton Das, Taskin Ahmed, Shafiul Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Taijul Islam, Mominul Haque.

27-31 August First Test, Dhaka, Bangladesh won by 20 runs

4-8 September Second Test, Chittagong