Yet again, bombastic Australian opener David Warner has been thrust into the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
In Warner World, ditching a day in the field for a nets session is a great idea. This follows on from his hot roll of recent brilliant decisions, although it’s not quite in the same league as attempting to whack Joe Root (proving that he can’t even middle a punch most of the time).
The performances of dynamo Dave are an enigma wrapped in a riddle stuffed into a piece of pine.
His rocks and diamonds innings have become his trademark. He has proven he can win games off his own bat, only to back them up with a series of underwhelming efforts – underwhelming an understatement in and of itself.
How can we fix him? The simple answer is we can’t.
To try and scrape all the rocks from Dave’s game is to eliminate the diamonds also. The risk, danger and reckless abandon of his weak totals are the basis of, on his day, his seemingly unstoppable roll of momentum.
It’s either pick him as he is, warts and all, or let him languish as a T20 specialist.
With the kiddy pool shallowness of Australian batting depth, can we afford to turn away a man with 20-plus Tests under his belt and seven first-class centuries?
I don’t think we can.
Despite his penchant for a low score, he is the only batsmen outside of Michael Clarke who has shown he can genuinely rip the game away from a quality bowling attack.
On top of this, he performs much better at home compared to abroad, with his trio of Test centuries all coming on Australian wickets.
In a future where the Steve Smiths and Usman Khawajas of the side can really stamp their authority on a number in the order, where the Maddinsons, Silks and other young prospects can start to really plunder some runs in the Sheffield Shield, the position of Warner certainly comes under immense scrutiny.
But for now, he might just be all we’ve got.
Twitter: The_Hoss12
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