South African pace spearhead Morne Morkel has promised to take up his challenge to Australian opener and his Indian Premier League (IPL) teammate David Warner when the team from down under visits the rainbow country.
South African pace spearhead Morne Morkel has promised to take up his challenge to Australian opener and his Indian Premier League (IPL) teammate David Warner when the team from down under visits the rainbow country.
Australia are to play two Tests and three ODIs in South Africa. Before that the two teams play two Twenty20s, beginning Oct 13 in Cape Town.
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Warner is in a red hot form and is fresh from blazing back-to-back centuries in the Champions League tournament in India.
Morkel, who is Warner's teammate in Delhi Daredevils, jokingly dared the Australian to try his switch-hitting against his 150 km deliveries.
"Hopefully, he won't try that against me," Morkel was quoted as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"He's played exceptionally well now in the Twenty20 ... I think the most important thing for us is to not stand back and, in a way, fight fire with fire."
"Let's see who can win that battle."
"I think the most important thing (with Warner) is not to be too predictable and always to expect the unexpected things to happen."
Morkel said Warner will find it tough to convert his feats on the sub-continent in Cape Town.
"I think the conditions here are going to be completely different," said Morkel. "Hopefully, we can get the upper hand on that on Thursday."
Australian vice-captain Shane Watson, however, feels Warner has grown in confidence as an international player and sees no reason why he can't repeat his exploits in the two-match T20 series.
"The two innings he played (in Champions League) were as impressive an innings as you can ever see," Watson said.
"To see what he can do against high-quality bowling really right and left handed as well ... he's a very special talent."
"I'm sure the more comfortable he feels around our group and the more he is around our group, the more we're going to see exactly what he can do on the international stage."
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