Australian opener David Warner has taken a dramatic u-turn on the way to approach batting in Asia. Before the start of the Sri Lanka Test series, Warner was preaching patience and batting for a long time but now he is dancing to the tune of thinking "outside the box”.
Two defeats against Sri Lanka, which made it eight successive defeats in Asia for Australia has prompted Warner to have a change of heart with respect to the approach.
"You have to think outside the box," Warner said. "For me to come out of my crease personally it's something I don't normally do but you have to do it in these conditions. If you defend, one's got your name on it, and one's going to straighten, which happened the other day.
"For me it's about thinking on my feet, using my feet when I'm out here and hopefully putting the bowler off some of his rhythm.”
Warner stressed that this change in stance was primarily down to the fact that pitches now turn on day one and two unlike before, when they turned square towards the end of the Test match.
"You're sitting ducks when you're facing six balls in a row - one of them is going to have your name on it. Especially when one turns and one doesn't turn," the southpaw said. "It's a hard game. People don't realise that you're going out here day one and day two and it's turning square, where maybe five or six years ago probably day three, day four was probably when it was turning. So it's hard from ball one and we really have to work hard and that starts in the nets.”
Yet, before the start of the first Test against Sri Lanka, he said: "You've got to be patient enough. You've got to rotate the strike. Your patience comes with hitting your four-balls, your boundary balls.
"They're the ones you've got to really wait on. That's what we're talking about with patience in this game, especially over here. You've got to bite the bullet.”
Warner’s message to selectors
Australian vice-captain also spoke about the need for picking the players based on conditions, echoing the sentiments of both coach Darren Lehmann and captain Steven Smith, especially with a trip to India coming up next year.
"That's probably the Moneyball theory isn't it, you pick players for certain conditions," Warner said. "End of the day we're all professional athletes and you have to adapt to the conditions. If you don't adapt to them, your head's probably on the line. For us as cricketers we have to do the best we can in these conditions and adapt as well as we can."
He also left the decision to the selectors, who, he believed, should pick horses for causes going forward.
"If the selectors don't think we fit that area of expertise, whether or not we can play in these conditions or play at home, that's up to them if they want to go down that path and pick the team based on that.
"[India] is our next subcontinent tour so I think there will be a few assessments made. I think the selectors may have to reassess a few things and whatever they think is necessary, they'll take the appropriate action I'm pretty sure."
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