Warner wants to ensure that he does not give away his wicket cheaply
Australia opening batsman David Warner will be altering his usual flamboyant batting style for the upcoming series against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates since the pitches are more spin-friendly.
Warner has an ODI strike-rate of 84.64, which is not as high as some people would expect considering that he has become a household name for his explosive batting style in the Twenty20 cricket.
Warner wants to ensure that during the limited overs series against Pakistan he will have more than one way to keep the runs flowing, but also noted that the tour will be a real test of his batting technique.
With the pitches being spin-friendly, former Australia opening batsman and current batting coach Justin Langer believes that all the batsmen should concentrate on being able to combat spin bowling, which he expects to be a huge factor throughout the upcoming International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20 next month in Sri Lanka.
“Justin put forward to them that we needed wickets to be turning and challenging… balls were turning and going over guys’ heads and doing all sorts of things and the boys adapted very well, the challenge for me personally is to keep rotating the strike – it’s a part of my game I’ve got to keep working on,” Warner said.
During their recent 4-0 thrashing at the hands of arch-rivals England, Australia struggled to post up big scores after making a rapid start.
With that in mind, Warner is now training himself to ensure that the pressure of dot balls does not overwhelm him during the Pakistan series.
“I can’t just go ‘three dot balls and now I’ve got to hit a boundary’ or ‘four dots and then I get off strike’ as that could be five balls I’ve wasted getting one run for the team, and if I do get bogged down and face three dot balls, I mustn’t just try to hit one out of the park and get a soft dismissal; that could put us in a tough situation and it says I’m not playing for the team. In my mind, rotating the strike is what I want to get out of this tour and if I can rotate the strike as well as hitting my boundaries then that’ll be good for the team,” Warner said.