Broken Bell is a walking wicket
Now Warner bowls England a bouncer
David WARNER does not do diplomacy and his withering assessment of ian Bell as a wicket-inwaiting has undoubtedly turned up the heat on England in the build-up to next week’s third ashes Test.
Speaking ahead of the three-day match against derbyshire starting today, australia opener Warner said that, on current form, the tourists see 33-year-old Bell as an easy dismissal.
Contrast that to two summers ago when Bell scored three hundreds and finished man of the series in a 3-0 home win.
although the Warwickshire player escaped being culled after a summer Test return of 116 in eight innings, the decision to shunt him up to No 3 in place of Gary Ballance has put pressure on him to perform on his home ground of Edgbaston.
‘With Ballance and Bell (below) where they are at the moment, they almost seem like two easy wickets because they’re not scoring as many runs as they would like,’ Warner said.
Joe Root will also rise up the order, with England drafting in Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow, leading run scorer in the County Championship top flight.
Forcing reviews of positions and personnel is undoubtedly seen as an additional psychological blow by australia following their serieslevelling 405-run win at Lord’s.
‘Mitchell Johnson does have some of the English players worked out,’ Warner added. ‘We have our routine to Cook, we have our routine to Bell. and you have Root who comes out and scores a hundred.
‘What’s happening in their camp... they are going to have to work out themselves. it’s like they put all their energy in the first Test. i felt that as a batsman.
‘The job is hard enough as it is, walking out there in your normal position, let alone coming out chopping and changing.’
Bell can expect concentrated hostility from the australia pace attack, but Warner is braced to receive much the same thing from the Edgbaston crowd on his return to Birmingham.
Two years ago, during the Champions Trophy, it was in the city’s Walkabout nightspot that he made a physical attack on Root that led to censure from Cricket australia. Edgbaston is notorious as the most vociferous of British Test venues and Warner says he and Johnson are prepared for treatment similar to that given to Stuart Broad by the crowds at the 2013-14 ashes. ‘When we read the papers at home, 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 said.
‘But that’s great. For us it is about going out and playing positive cricket. You are going to cop criticism wherever you go.
‘You can’t keep everyone happy and it is our job — my job — to score runs, his to take wickets. if we keep doing that we look after ourselves.’
Warner has spoken of being a reformed character, toning down his on-field volume, and of his new values since becoming a family man. He has also given up alcohol.
Yet it did not stop one of his predecessors, Matthew Hayden, from criticising him for not applauding Root’s hundred in Cardiff, an accusation Warner refutes.
‘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 countered.
‘We all clapped, we always do. We will continue to acknowledge people’s knocks.’
With australia continuing to run medical checks on opening batsman Chris Rogers after his blow to the head and subsequent dizziness at Lord’s, 32-year- old Shaun Marsh will partner Warner at the top of the order against derbyshire.
The first- choice seam attack, plus Steve Smith, have not travelled north from London, leaving australia with just 12 players for the derby fixture.
Spinner Nathan Lyon is expected to be named as 12th man.