Things looking grim & nasty for David Warner

    With just a solitary ton in the last 3 years as a test cricketer and an average no greater than 30 since 2021, David Warner is well on his decline as a red ball batsman. After three tours to the Indian subcontinent in the span of 10 years, he is still getting out to the same bowler in a very identical way. His reaction when he found out that the DRS has upheld the onfield decision of 'out' in the second innings in Nagpur was pretty telling. He kept looking at the screen and had a grim smile on his face as he walked back. Its one of the many cliches in cricket that its okay to get out to good deliveries. What is peculiar about David Warner is that he is not getting runs even on Australian wickets where he has historically produced runs as if it was no real trouble to him. He got a couple of scores of 90s in the Ashes of 2021-22. Apart from the 200 he got on the boxing day last year, he doesn't even have a fifty at home which is a really worrying scenario taking into consideration that the Aussies hosted the West Indies last summer. With all due respect, the Windies don't have a potent bowling attack to stop Aussie batsmen from scoring runs on true Australian pitches. Warner was getting out cheaply where everyone else didn't seem to find it difficult to bat. 'The Bull', as they call him in Australia, has always found a place in the touring Australian sides on the back of his performances in the home summer. As the numbers could tell, his record in England is almost as bad as his record in Asia.

    'Tired' and 'exhausted' were the words he used to describe his mental and physical state before coming to India. He does look mentally fatigued and short of confidence. If ever there was one thing you could use as a superlative for David Warner, it was his confidence. Even after failing miserably in England in 2019, he went back to Australia and scored the runs in the same attacking manner. Its predominantly a limited overs batting technique he has which works brilliantly on pitches where there is true bounce and carry. David Warner is brilliant driving on the up and with horizontal bat shots on both sides of the wicket. As long as the ball behaves itself, he gets runs and gets them quickly. When the ball starts doing something in the air or after pitching, that's where he has always struggled throughout his career. After watching him in the first test of the Border-Gavaskar trophy where he had two really short stays in the middle, I just got the feeling that he really meant it when he said that 2023 could be his last year in international cricket. He is very close to his family and ageing does make things different for a lot of sportsmen. By looking at the way he played Ashwin in Nagpur and with the pitches not getting any better, I really do fear that it's going to be a long tour of David Warner. He doesn't look comfortable when Shami is opening the bowling coming around the wicket and he just looks petrified of facing Ashwin. Even though Australia don't have a better replacement, I just have a feeling that Matt Renshaw could be opening with Usman Khawaja in the last test which could mean that David Warner might not make it to the end of this series.

    This is the same David Warner who smashed South Africa in the mighty 'G' on his T20 debut ages ago. This is the same David Warner who scored heaps of runs in South Africa in 2014 after a very successful Ashes series at home. This is the same David Warner who was banned from playing cricket by the ICC for a year and came back to find his place in all three Australian sides. There is no one denying that he is in the twilight of his career. He is 37 years old and short of runs. It won't be easy but I really do hope that Warner gets some runs in this series and makes it to England for the Ashes. Because watching a batsman as good as him go out on his all time low would be very painful as a cricket romantic.