If you come at David Warner, you better not miss

April 2021, the Indian Premier League is just about to get underway and David Warner has been (like always) given the responsibility to power the Sunrisers Hyderabad into the upper echelons. The Australian hasn’t been in great touch and has been battling injuries over the past few months. Yet, everyone feels that things will click as soon as he dons the orange SRH jersey.

Rather uncharacteristically, everything starts turning pear-shaped. Warner, despite scoring runs, sees his strike rate being cast under the scanner. He then gets into a rut where he can’t buy a run and gets sacked as captain. A game later, he is dropped from the team altogether.

As the IPL caravan moves to the UAE a couple of months later, countless individuals expect Warner to be back at his best. It isn’t often that Warner endures a lean patch so barren that his qualities are questioned – that too in the shortest format of the game.

Unfortunately for him, the drought continues. He finds new ways to get out and the rub of the green also goes against him. He ends the 2021 IPL season watching games from his hotel room rather than the dug-out, meaning that when he arrives for Australia’s preparations ahead of the T20 World Cup, there is a massive cloud over his sustainability.

Though those within the team didn’t exactly bother with it, there were several on the outside who had begun muttering in hushed tones – “David Warner isn’t as indomitable as he once seemed, eh?” Some are even beginning to wonder if Australia are better off without Warner in their first-choice eleven.

Those notions gather steam as the left-handed batter falls for another low score against South Africa. He hits rock bottom. Not only have the runs dried up, but the aura that has defined Warner throughout his career is also beginning to wane.

And then, just when there seems to be no reason to back Warner, it all starts coming together. Just like that. A fiery knock against Sri Lanka follows and everyone starts believing that Warner is back at his best.

There are a couple of sub-standard scores in the aftermath of that innings. Yet there is renewed optimism that Warner, who was down in the dumps till a month ago, may not be out after all.

As is the Warner way, he ended up defining Australia’s T20 World Cup campaign. He top-scored for the Aussies against Pakistan and then produced an equally effervescent essay in the summit clash. Not only did he handle the pressure expertly, he fought fire with fire - something that has been Warner’s greatest strength over the years.

So, as England rocked up Down Under for another iteration of the Ashes, all eyeballs were trained on Warner. The last time the Australian had faced England in such a rubber, he could only muster 95 runs at a meager average of 9.5. He only faced 184 balls in the United Kingdom in the summer of 2019, for goodness’ sake.

At the start of Australia's innings at the Gabba, there were signs that England had the wood over him. The batter began very tentatively and fenced at deliveries more regularly than he usually does.

When batting on 17, Ben Stokes made the most of Warner’s circumspect nature, nipping a ball into him from middle and leg stump. The ball ricocheted off the pads and thudded into the top of off stump.

Just as he was preparing to trudge back to the pavilion, the umpire called a no-ball. Delirium for those rooting for Australia. An absolute nightmare for those who had traveled from England.

Either way, it was a reprieve that Warner perhaps deserved, especially after all that went against him at the turn of the year and before the T20 World Cup.

Warner (L) survived quite a few close calls on Day 2

A few hours later, England were even more accommodative. Rory Burns dropped a sitter at second slip, while Haseeb Hameed panicked at short leg despite Warner literally scrambling to make his ground.

The left-handed batter, though, barely batted an eyelid as he coasted through his innings. There was the odd uncharacteristically loose shot and this was by no means a spotless David Warner special.

Yet, it was enough for him to remind the world that you don’t accord second (or third or fourth) chances to Warner. In fact, whenever the batter has been dismissed off a no-ball in Test cricket, he has crossed 93 runs each time (6 times).

David Warner's innings has given Australia the advantage at the Gabba

Apart from driving Australia into a position of ascendancy at the Gabba, this essay could also have large-scale implications for what lies ahead. The left-handed batter has usually been at his most belligerent at the start of series – both home and away.

In the first match of a series, he averages 50.78, having notched up nine hundreds. In the second fixture of a series, that average zings up to 55.46 before dropping down to 50.62 a game later.

When speaking exclusively about Tests in Australia, Warner averages 66.65 and 83.41 in the first and second matches of a rubber respectively. Interestingly, 11 of Warner’s 18 Test hundreds at home have come in these situations.

Thus, a case can be made that England might have to brace themselves for more carnage. Not just because Warner seems to have rediscovered his mojo, but also because history indicates that that is in the offing.

At this point, it seems that Warner has regained his aura – an aura where he seems to have an answer for every quandary posed and, of course, has his own inimitable style of counter-punching.

Until a few months ago, nearly everyone questioned what all the hype around Warner was about. Some even said that he was past his prime and that his best days were behind him.

At 35, the batter isn’t getting any younger. But he isn’t getting any worse as a cricketer either. If anything, Warner seems more well-rounded because he has experienced first-hand how fickle this sport can be and how it takes a slashed boundary over point or a cover drive for everything to start falling into place.

For much of 2021, Warner was down. He was on the mat and he seemed anything but the street-fighter who has carved an extraordinary niche in international cricket.

Oppositions, though, didn’t do enough to prolong that period of ineffectiveness. Now they are realizing that if you come after Warner, you better not miss. For Australian fans, this will be music to their ears. For those around the world, it might not be as much of a symphony.

Warner’s staunchest supporters have often said that he makes things click. It seems that they were right all along.