David Warner defends big bats and blames flat pitches for bowlers’ plight

ByArun S Kaimal, SportsCafe Editor

07/08/2016

Australian opening batsman David Warner has defended the use of thick and lightweight bats and said that flat pitches are dictating the balance between bat and ball. Warner’s comments come on the back of former Australian captain Ricky Ponting’s call to limit the sizes of the willow in Tests.

Speaking at the Australian Cricket Society's annual dinner on Tuesday, Ponting had said that the time has arrived for cricketing authorities to limit the size of the bats in the longest format of the game.

"I don't mind big bats for the shorter versions of the game. I would actually say you've got a bat you can use in Test cricket and a certain type of bat you can use in one-day cricket and T20 cricket.

"The short forms of the game survive on boundaries - fours and sixes - whereas the Test game is being dominated too much now by batters because the game is a bit easier for them than it was.

"Some of those cricket bats going round the dressing sheds at the moment are unbelievably big. One-day cricket is a little bit different. I think the crowds come to see the fours and sixes and the big hits," Ponting had said, reported Sky Sports.

The former Australian skipper had also said that he would raise the issue at the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) World Cricket Committee meeting at Lord's next week. He was also supported by Australian pacer Josh Hazlewood.

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But, David Warner believes that flat pitches are more to blame for the imbalance between bat and ball than the big bats.

"If we look around the country, I think the wickets are pretty much dictating," Warner told reporters in Sydney on Friday. "A lot of batsmen are scoring a lot of runs, there have been a lot of runs scored in the last 12 to 18 months; you can't specifically come out and say it is the big bats, because everyone around the country and around the world is scoring a lot of runs. In my mind it is a credit to the bat maker,” reported ESPNcricinfo.

A report commissioned by the MCC World Cricket Committee had found in 2014 that the thickness of bats had increased 22mm in the past century and edges by almost 300 percent. However, the committee refused to impose any restrictions on bat sizes.

Warner also added that using a bigger bat was not always an advantage for him.

"If you go back to the Ashes and have a look at my leading edges, I think it probably didn't help me there so there's pros and cons," he said, referring to that form of dismissal, reported ABC News.

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