David Warner may be going through a torrid time as a player, but his Australian teammate Glenn Maxwell is backing the experienced left-hander to revive his career via the T20 World Cup 2021 in the Middle East.
Warner is entering the seventh edition of the tournament after facing an extended rough time for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League 2021. The 34-year-old made only 195 runs from his eight innings at an average of 24.37 and a strike-rate of just 107.73.
In a controversial move, the Sunrisers removed Warner from captaincy near the end of the Indian leg of the competition and twice dropped him from their playing XI as well, handing over the captaincy reign to Kane Williamson.
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Then at the beginning of Australia’s prep for the T20 World Cup, Warner got out for a first-ball duck in a warm-up fixture against New Zealand on Monday at Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi.
Even though there is a consensus that this is only a rare blip in a fantastic player’s career, one can’t completely deny that there has also been an evident dip in Warner’s stroke-making ability in this phase since the start of the last year’s Premier League campaign.
But the Australian camp isn’t buying into the theory around Warner’s potential decline and is backing him to produce the goods again as the team from Down Under eye their maiden T20 World Cup crown.
“If you ever doubt Davey, it’s an absolute no-no. You know he’s going to turn it around. He’s a superstar of all three formats. He’s made so many runs. He’s going to go down as one of the greats of the game. Unfortunately, he got Martin Guptill’d (an excellent one-handed catch) yesterday with an absolute hanger. Gup seems to do that a lot against us.
Those sorts of things happen when you’re searching for it. But you know when he gets out there come game time, come the 23rd [of October], regardless of what happens in the next practice game, you know he’s going to hit the ground running. He’s going to be a big player for us,”
Maxwell was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.
Warner hasn’t boasted of the best of records in T20 World Cups previously. Even in his heyday, the left-hander never really conquered the challenge of playing for the coveted crown. He has an average of 21.50 and strike-rate of just 128.88 over 23 innings in his T20 World Cup career (from 2009 edition to 2016). That said, Warner’s overall T20I record is decent: 2,265 runs at an average of 31.45 and strike-rate of 139.72.
Apart from that, Maxwell spoke about allrounder Mitchell Marsh and said the way he is timing the ball right now, it augurs really well for the Aussies since he’ll be batting at No.3, expected to come in during the powerplay.
He stated he expects Marsh to have a “massive tournament” as he is going through an “extraordinary” run of form with the bat. Micthell has made 442 runs from his 15 innings in T20Is this year while averaging 31.57 with a strike-rate of 123.80, which may seem quite low for a top-order power-hitter, but a lot of those matches have come on dry, sluggish pitches in West Indies and Bangladesh.
Maxwell, who missed Monday’s warm-up game versus the Kiwis, is also likely to sit out of the next warm-up game against the Indians on Wednesday after a busy second half of the IPL 2021. The Australian maverick has been in scintillating form with the bat and will be hoping to continue that through the T20 World Cup.
