Warner refuses to bite the Indian sledging bait
new delhi — Australia’s David Warner is refusing to take the bait after being publicly sledged by India’s cricketers, but even if he wanted to fire back the struggling opening batsman has few runs to back up any fighting words.
The lefthander has cobbled together just 98 runs from four innings in the first two Tests of the series in India and has fallen three times to spinner Ravichandran Ashwin — twice in last week’s defeat at Bangalore, which levelled the series 1-1.
Warner has regularly punished India’s bowlers on the seam-friendly wickets back home, belting them for nearly 50 runs on average, but he has been curtailed by the subcontinent’s flat pitches where he averages 24.41.
India have seized upon Warner’s woes, with top-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara poking fun at the vice captain’s struggles against Ashwin, who has dismissed him nine times in his career, the most by any bowler.
“They were always under pressure when they walk into bat,” Pujara said in a video interview with Ashwin posted on the Indian cricket board’s website.
“I wanted to make sure their batsmen are thinking about it,” Pujara added. “Especially David Warner. Whenever he walks in to bat, Ash is always happy.
“So I always keep reminding him that Ash is the one.”
Warner plundered India for 457 runs in the 2014/15 home series, which Australia won 2-0, and was involved in a number of verbal battles with the tourists, earning him a code of conduct fine in the second Test in Adelaide.
“He has got me now on nine occasions so credit to him for that,” Warner told the Australian media today.
Ashwin bowled Warner in the first innings of the second Test with a sharp away turner from over the wicket before trapping him in front of the stumps in the second innings.
“The last Test I was contemplating that (switch hits), I tried to play a reverse sweep. The only concern for me is the variable bounce, that’s always the challenging thing,” he said.
Getting the switch hit into play is one way of disturbing Ashwin’s rhythm but on Indian wickets, that ploy is fraught with danger, feels Warner.
“If you miss that and switch hit you can still be given out lbw, but if you reverse you can’t. You have to be careful.
“I know in my mind if I play a shot (against Ashwin), he will change something. I know if he tries something I’m thinking in the back of my mind, how am I going to score?
“He’s a fantastic bowler, he’s got a lot of wickets in his backyard and I have to respond to that,” said the dangerous opener.
Warner was unimpressed by the video from Pujara but said the tourists would not respond in kind ahead of the third Test in Ranchi this week.
“It’s just a rule of the cricketing world you keep everything on the field ... but that’s up to them. From our point of view, we’ll never do that,” he said.
“At the end of the day we’re professionals and you have to move on from that stuff. Hopefully both teams will come out and play with the spirit of cricket.”
Warner said he would be “pretty upset” if any Australian players aired grievances publicly in the manner Kohli had, but he was keen to move on. — Agencies