Underachiever David Warner takes first step towards Aussie greatness
David Warner, no doubt, will be remembered in the years to come for all the right and the wrong reasons. But exactly a year from now, he will have the opportunity to establish himself as an all-time great and with his exploits in the Sri Lanka series, he has taken the first step towards doing so.
It is almost 10 years ago that David Warner donned the bright yellow Aussie colours for the first time. A chubby young boy with a round structure who had utter disdain for the art of bowling walked in to bat in front of a packed MCG and just like that, tore apart a star-studded South African bowling line-up, comprising the likes of Dale Steyn and Makhaya Ntini, to make a name for himself on the big stage.
If you’d told me on that very day that this kid would be more successful in Tests than T20Is, I would have definitely laughed off the comment. 10 years later and here we are, with that statement being as true as ever, with Warner enjoying a more successful Test career for Australia compared to T20 and mind you, this is despite him having a horrendous Ashes.
Warner’s T20 career makes for an interesting case study. It’s almost as if he is a different batsman in the IPL and a different batsman in T20Is. You look at his IPL numbers - close to 5000 runs at an average of 43 - and think he’s the greatest T20 batsman of our generation and then you look at his international numbers and go “Wow, this is not the Davey Warner I know”.
Between March 2016 and Feb 2018, Warner scored 1489 runs in the IPL at an average of 59.56. During the same time-span, he only managed 197 runs in 13 T20Is for Australia at an average of 15.15.
For almost a decade, each and every time, the Aussie faithful have rested their hopes on Warner heading into the T20 World Cup, but unfortunately, have been left disappointed every single time. He has featured in five different T20 World Cups and yet, has numbers that probably would only fit, with all due respect, someone like a Marcus Stoinis - 473 runs in 23 innings at an average under 22.
On the contrary, he single-handedly led his franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad to an IPL title in 2016, amassing 848 runs in just 17 innings in that season. So what is it about the international stage in T20 cricket that has haunted Warner till date? That is one question that he, and only he, would be able to answer, but one thing is for sure, with age not on his side, time is running out for Warner.
But against Sri Lanka, perhaps for the first time in his career, the Warner of Australia looked like the Warner of Sunrisers: a symbol of solidity, an epitome of destruction who just refused to give up knowing that he had a task at hand to be accomplished. It was a combination of the grit he showed in the World Cup and the arrogance he showed in the IPL, something that had never been seen before in his batting in T20I cricket.
For the first time in his career, Warner carried his IPL form over into international cricket; he had registered six fifty-plus scores in seven innings heading into the series and he backed it up with three more - all three unbeaten - in the series. Of course, it was against a highly inexperienced Sri Lankan side at home, but many a time in the past, even a small occasion like this, had proved to be a stage too big for Warner to succeed.
The upcoming T20Is against Pakistan, a much better side, should definitely give us a better idea of how far Warner has progressed and whether he actually has progressed in the first place, but if evidence from the Sri Lanka series is anything to go by, then one can be sure that Warner has finally arrived, and that too with a clear goal in sight.
Make no mistake, should Warner announce his retirement tomorrow, he would still go down as one of the finest batsmen Australia have ever produced, but for a generational cricketer like him to bow out of the game without an “all-time great” tag would be a shame. And one does get the feeling, for him to clinch the tag, he would need to deliver a World Cup and hence, the T20 World Cup next year might just be the most important tournament of Warner’s career.
With the tournament set to be played at home, Warner has the opportunity served to him on a silver platter. With his ability, the New South Welshman, just like he does in the IPL, has the opportunity to dominate the tournament and punch the opposition bowlers into oblivion, but more than his batting, the tournament will be a test of his character, especially with his reputation at stake.
At 34, the T20 World Cup next year might very well be the last shot at the coveted trophy for Warner. The journey is a long one and on the other side of it lies greatness, and Warner, with his exploits so far in limited-overs cricket this year, has taken the first step towards acquiring it.
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