Australian opening batsman David Warner's 24.12 average from eight innings in the ongoing four-Test match series should be enough evidence for pundits to take back their words
David Warner
Australia's David Warner plays a shot on Day Three of the fourth Test in Dharamsala yesterday. Pic/PTI
In the first week of January against Pakistan, David Warner set the Sydney Cricket Ground alight by becoming only the fifth batsmen in Test match history to plunder a century in the first session on the opening day.
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Warner's knock was marvelled by many across the globe including some elite Australian cricketers who called him one of the greatest opening batsmen.
Two months later, the men that labelled him 'great' must be regretting those words after Warner continued his horrible record outside of Australia by finishing up the four Test-series in India with 193 runs at a deplorable average of 24.12 from eight innings.
Warner's failures on the last Test tour to India may have been understandable because he was on his first tour and was still discovering the art of batting in Test cricket.
No excuses, now!
But this time around, he was rested for the ODI series against New Zealand in February to ensure he got sufficient practice in Dubai to master the art of playing spin.
Despite doing all the hard yards there are still flaws in Warner's game. His concrete-like wrists means he cannot generate power with a flick of his bottom hand, nor can he play the ball late. His hard hands and split grip make it impossible for him play through the leg-side without opening up which exposes his outside edge against the spinning ball.
Graeme Hick, Australia's batting coach, said: “He is a very aggressive player, that's the way he likes to play and the way we like for him to play.”
Interestingly, Australia had adopted a patience mentality in this series, so for Hick to state that he would have liked his premier opening batsman to be destructive seemed to contradict the Australian strategy for this tour.
Scrambled mind
Perhaps, the fact that Australia has asked Warner to deviate from his natural game had scrambled his mind. His dismissal in the first innings at Bangalore where he was bowled over the wicket by Ravichandran Ashwin's off-spinner that pitched way outside the line of leg-stump, was a classic example of Warner being caught in the middle of trying to be too defensive.
In Pune, he thrust his pad at an incoming Ashwin delivery with his bat tucked behind the pad. In Bangalore, he attempted a defensive prod against a ball that pitched outside leg-stump.
In Ranchi, he blunted a full toss back to the bowler and then in Dharamsala, on a pitch that resembled the hard bouncy wickets of Australia, he looked rushed against the Indian seamers.
Aside from the bouncy pitches of Australia and South Africa, Warner has only managed to score one century and his average after 51 games in Asia, England and the West Indies is only 31.66. Maybe, it is time to judge Warner on his credentials away from Australia because the figures state that he is far from a great batsman.
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