Shane Warne has tipped his Melbourne Stars skipper Cameron White to return to form in Thursday night's must-win T20 Big Bash League clash with the Adelaide Strikers.
Resurgent Brisbane Heat's third win in a row on Tuesday night catapulted them to fourth place on the competition table courtesy of a superior net run rate but if the Stars prevail at the MCG they will replace the Queensland team in the top four.
So far in the tournament the Stars have won three of their six games, including their past two, but White has not had the impact that would have been expected of Australia's T20 captain, with scores of 1, 2, 3, 1, 1 and 5 not out giving him just 13 runs at 2.6.
Asked about the batting woes of White, Warne said he hopes to see the man his team-mates call 'Bear' lead from the front and guide his team into the final four.
"I think he's handling himself pretty well," Warne said before training at the MCG on Wednesday.
"I think in these situations it brings out the best in you too if you're out of form."
"Bear obviously hasn't performed the way he would have liked and I'm sure a big innings is hopefully (coming) on Thursday for him or hopefully when we make the finals."
"(He's an) impact player, he can hit the ball out of the park first ball or any time."
"So hopefully he gets a chance to get in there and he can win the game with us with the bat or whatever he has to do but get in there and smack a couple over the fence and he'll be fine."
Warne is also looking forward to the pressure that comes with knowing his team must win or its campaign is over, with things so close the Stars could also yet host a semi.
"All we know it's in our court, if we win we get through to the semi-finals which is what we wanted to do ... that was a goal at the start of the tournament," he added.
"We haven't played very well, we've just started to hit some form so momentum is a huge thing, we've just got some momentum now heading into tomorrow night and it's a must-win game."
"It's pretty simple, we win we're in the finals, we lose we're out."
"They're just conditions that you like to play in, you always like to test yourselves against the best, you always want to see how good a team you've got."
"Unfortunately we haven't batted as well as we'd have liked throughout the tournament but I think they're just starting to hit their straps, hit some form, and if they can find some form tomorrow (and) we can continue to bowl and field well then hopefully it's a spot in the semi-finals (for us)."