For the past year, David Warner has been termed as “finished” and what not. The Australian opener finally found some form and made a strong statement with the bat as well as on the microphone.
Warner scored 65 runs off 42 balls at Dubai as the Aussies chased down 155 in 17 overs with seven wickets remaining. Earlier, Adam Zampa 2/12 and Mitchell Starc 2/27 bowled beautifully to restrict the Lankan Lions to just 154/6 on what was a fresh belter of a deck.
Speaking in post-match presser, Warner was dismissive about the whole debate about his form, saying he just laughs it off.
“I actually think people talking about my form is quite funny. I laugh at the matter. I’ve hardly played any cricket. I had two games in the IPL and then warm-up games are warm-up games for a reason,”
he said.
Warner’s first boundary of the innings came off a reverse sweep against Maheesh Theekshana – the exact shot he was dismissed on in the warm-up game against India’s Ravichandran Ashwin. Warner was aware of the outside noise and stated that it’s a low-risk shot for him while sometimes it doesn’t come off.
“I got criticised when I got out to Ashwin in the practice game playing the same shot. We know which bowlers are bowling what, we know where the fields are and we know how to try and apply pressure. If it comes off, it comes off.”
Warner’s scores in five matches in the lead up to this fifty – including two warm-ups and the opening fixture against South Africa – read 0, 2, 0, 1, 14. But his comments on the lack of time in the middle were spot on as he had only faced 29 balls across these five games.
“Tonight, I had to obviously start fresh. Everyone was talking about my form, which I reiterated was not a thing I was worried about. It was about going out there and starting well. That’s all we’re trying to do, apply pressure to the bowlers.”
Warner only played two matches in the second leg of the IPL 2021 while he was sacked as a captain after six matches in the first leg. His numbers in the first leg were more down to the bad batting decks than his form.
After a bitter fallout between him and the Sunrisers Hyderabad management, Warner is set to get a fresh start in the IPL. But before that, he has a big role to play for Australia to lift their first-ever T20 World Cup trophy.
