Warner ready for hostilities
ASHES Aussie opener not concerned by criticism, says team the only priority
LONDON: David Warner is braced to be the centre of crowd hostilities when the Ashes moves on to Birmingham, scene of one of his most infamous moments, next week but the Australia batsman insists he is comfortable being public enemy No1.
Alongside Mitchell johnson, Warner has received the bulk of the Barmy Army’s flak since the Ashes began this month. For the 28- year- old, whose reformed ways on this tour include abstinence from alcohol, the Edgbaston match offers a reminder of why. Two years ago, he was disciplined by Cricket Australia after a physi- cal attack on joe Root in the city’s Walkabout bar during the Champions Trophy; his board-imposed ban from the warm-up matches in effect ruled him out of the start of the 2013 series.
It was certainly an upgrade on not walking, the offence Stuart Broad committed later that summer at Trent Bridge, to fuel the ire of Australia fans during the 2013-14 tour, and before the three-day warm-up match against Derbyshire that starts on Thursday, Warner accepts it is now his turn, along with johnson, to “cop criticism”.
He said: “When we read the papers at home (during the 201314 series), the Courier-Mail gave it to Stuart Broad. We sit back and laugh at it, but when we go over to England we know we are going to be the ones they are going to have a go at.”
Warner has also received criticism from back home, with his predecessor Matthew Hayden speaking out against the batsman’s failure to applaud Root’s hundred during England’s first Test triumph in Cardiff. It is a claim that Warner strongly rejects. “If the camera stayed on me for the five minutes that he celebrated they would have seen me clap alongside all the other guys,” he responded.
“The captions used are always going to be a snapshot of you doing something and the time that photo was taken was probably a minute and a half after he raised his bat. We all clapped; we always do; we always will continue acknowledging people’s knocks.”
Meanwhile, although brandishing Ian Bell an “easy” wicket less than 24 hours earlier, Warner suggested that England’s move to revert him to No3 was the correct call. The 33-yearold struck three hundreds to finish man of the series in the 3-0 Ashes win two years ago but has accumulated just 73 runs in four innings at the start of this campaign. “Bell has the weight of runs behind him and the experience. I think he’s a worldclass player,” Warner said. “In my view he’s out of touch at the moment, but we know what he’s capable of. He killed us last time we were over here.”
I am pleased to have been called up. Playing international cricket is a great challenge but that is why we play the game. If you don’t challenge yourself you will never find anything out about yourself JONNY BAIRSTOW, England batsman on being included in the squad It is about going out and playing positive. You are going to cop criticism wherever you go. You can’t keep everyone happy and it is our job to do the best for the team. If we keep doing that we look after ourselves DAVID WARNER, Australia batsman on the hostile environment and criticism from the media