When David Warner was banned for 12 months due to the ball-tampering scandal many people questioned if he would return the same cricketer. Well, he hasn’t. Warner’s even better now.
Certainly that is the case in T20s, the format he always looked primed to dominate yet never quite managed to master in his pre-ban career.
Warner’s debut international innings, more than 11 years ago, was an extraordinary 89 from 43 balls as he dismantled a full-strength South African T20 attack including peak Dale Steyn.
The powerful left hander immediately shaped up as a T20 gun, someone around whom Australia could build their team.
Yet over the following nine years, leading up to the sandpaper incident, Warner never again played a T20 innings of that quality for Australia.
Instead he became a superstar in Tests and ODIs, two formats which seemed to suit him less than T20s.
At the time he was banned, Warner had played 70 T20Is for Australia and owned the underwhelming record of 1,792 runs at 26, with a strike rate of 140. The veteran was in a deep form trough in T20Is, having averaged just 15 from his previous dozen innings.
David Warner bats against India. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
With top order batsmen D’Arcy Short and Chris Lynn running amok in the BBL, and Aaron Finch on fire as an opener, it was no longer clear that Warner was in Australia’s best XI.
He looked burned out.
To an outsider, T20s seemed to be his lowest priority. If he was indeed thinking that way, he couldn’t have been blamed given the lack of importance Australia placed on T20s during the coaching reign of Darren Lehmann.
Again and again Australia rolled out understrength sides, paying scant respect to the format.
If he was burned out that also would have made sense. Prior to his ban, no Australian player shouldered a greater workload across all formats than Warner.
In the four years before that scandal, Warner played 130 matches for Australia across all formats – 44 Tests, 64 ODIs and 22 T20Is.
With Steve Smith rarely turning out in T20s in that period, Warner was the only player who was a fixture of all three Australian sides.
Warner (130 matches) and Smith (128) were miles ahead of the next busiest Australian internationals – Mitchell Starc (91), Glenn Maxwell (87) and Aaron Finch (86).
When you factor in the amount of travelling involved in international cricket, and Warner’s yearly appearances in the densely-packed IPL, that represents huge strain both physically and mentally.
Warner probably needed an extended rest. That’s just what he got, rather unexpectedly, in the form of a year-long ban from international cricket, the IPL and Australian domestic matches.
Over those 12 months he made just a few brief appearances in T20 leagues in Canada, Bangladesh and the Caribbean. When the ban ended he was fresh and hungry – rested like he hadn’t been for more than a decade.
First Warner began piling up runs in ODIs. He was the second-highest runscorer in the World Cup and, since his return, has hoarded 793 runs at 72 in that format.
Warner’s Test form has been as up-and-down as you’re ever likely to see from an Aussie batsman. A putrid Ashes series in the UK was followed by an incredible home summer, during which he made 786 runs at 131.
Steve Smith and David Warner. (Photo by PATRICK HAMILTON/AFP /AFP via Getty Images)
But it has been in T20s Warner has displayed the greatest improvement since his ban ended. In the past year, Warner has played 21 matches in the shortest format – nine for Australia and 12 in the IPL, by far the world’s best domestic league.
Incredibly, he has churned out 1,107 runs at 85. Such a return would be jaw-dropping in first-class or one day cricket.
In T20s it seems almost impossible.
So many risks are taken by aggressive T20 openers like Warner that they typically don’t get the luxury of boosting their average with lots of easy not outs. That’s one of the reasons his average of 85 is so difficult to fathom.
Perhaps for the first time since early in his career, Warner looks fully switched on in T20s. Aside from being fresh and ravenous for runs, two other factors are likely to be powering Warner.
Firstly, there is the looming presence of the T20 World Cup, the only limited overs tournament Australia never have won. Secondly there is the intense focus and high value being placed on T20s by coach Justin Langer.
No longer are T20s treated as a novelty, with second-string Australian XIs rolled out like they were regularly under Lehmann.
It was telling that, even after a hectic seven months involving a World Cup, an Ashes, five home Tests and a tour of India, Langer still didn’t rest any of his stars from the just-completed T20 series in SA. Winning is all that matters.
Not surprisingly, this newly-serious approach to T20s has greatly improved Australia’s performances in a format that was long a weakness. They are now the world’s number one T20 side and the firm favourites to win this year’s World Cup.
Amid this committed and successful environment, Warner is thriving. Some 11 years after that stunning international debut against the Proteas, he finally is doing what he appeared destined to – tearing the T20 format to shreds.
Micko
Roar Rookie
I thought you'd be participating on the alphabet lists Jeff?
Micko
Roar Rookie
It's like the weird guy who wrote an article here before the SCG test to us all know that due to the bushfire crisis, he's not going to bother watching or paying attention to the cricket, deluding himself into thinking he's morally superior somehow. We were all just like, "Ummmmm, thanks mate, thanks for letting us know that vital information." :laughing: :laughing:
Micko
Roar Rookie
I'll always remember that classic Richie Benaud commentary when he got out once... "McGrath's been dismissed only 93 runs short of his century." :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:
Pedro The Fisherman
Roar Rookie
Yeh, I use the same reasons to hate Faf and Rabada!
mickey of mo$man
Guest
Get over it qwetzen u weirdo.. you a hold a grudge against one our finest cricketers who you dont know from a bar of soap, get a life champ!
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
EFF said: I also possess perspective and the pair have done their time. You are perfectly entitled to your "perspective". From another perspective however, the damage done to Australia's reputation from the Sandpaper Affair will last many, many years beyond the bans. And re "moral superiority"; Who's to say that they're not? Imo they rate higher than those fans who continue to support their team regardless of any disgrace that said team/club perpetrates.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
Apparently you expect rare sporting talents to emerge as fully pc media performers What on earth has being a "fully pc media performer" got to do with the majority of Warners' bad behaviour? Given that the alternative income to the millions that many "rare sporting talents" receive is probably the equivalent to a builders' labourer, I'd expect them to be extra careful in the social media cesspool. with social graces designed in your image. I never said, or even inferred, any such thing. And *again* quite what "social graces" has to do with sandpapering a ball escapes me. Those lessons on how to behave are instructive to young people who idolise them. I’d say that’s a benefit to society. This is very badly written. It's impossible to decipher what you're trying to say. What "lessons"? And if "young people" need to be "instructed" by The Life and Crimes of David Warner then society is further in the poo than I thought. Warner and Ponting before him would’ve thrown punches in a suburb nightclub when on the circuit... Please cite when and where Punter *threw* a punch. (And I don't understand why you've specified "suburban" nightclub). So qwert, I wrote what I meant, just not what you decided I meant! I didn't actually *decide* what you meant. You are also apparently the arbiter of transgressions. Nope. CA & the ICC are the arbiters of Warners transgressions. And they fined him, and sometimes suspended him, for *all* of those I mentioned above. They're not opinions, they are facts. he [Warner] has an inalienable right to free speech. Yep, just like Israel Folau. but having a go at the trashmedia (sic) certainly isn’t a transgression. Crash Craddock and Malcolm Conn are "trashmedia"??? They may work for Murdoch, but "trashmedia"? I think not. And your euphemisms are getting sillier and sillier. "Having a go" at someone is just a bit different to common abuse you know. Possibly. Warner telling the world; "Shock me @crashcraddock1 talking s*** about ipl jealous p**ck. Get a real job. All you do is bag people. #getalife". Isn't simply 'having a go' no matter which way you hang it. Crikey! Some people would give him 6 months just for his assault on English in his collected rants of this episode. Anyhow, I'm sure he appreciates your attempts to whitewash history. Nearly as much as when you wash his car for free.
Blake Standfield
Roar Guru
Ned Flanders
EastsFootyFan
Roar Guru
“Fanboy”? :laughing: no, I’m on the record as calling the pair morons for the sandpaper nonsense, but I also possess perspective and the pair have done their time. That said, it’s always funny seeing people go out of their way to comment on articles purely to claim they have have long since ceased taking an interest in a matter they’re now actively engaging in to alert people to their moral superiority.
Insult_2_Injury
Roar Rookie
Apparently you expect rare sporting talents to emerge as fully pc media performers with social graces designed in your image. Australia’s sports fields are populated by bogans who will learn lessons in public. Those lessons on how to behave are instructive to young people who idolise them. I’d say that’s a benefit to society. Warner and Ponting before him would’ve thrown punches in a suburb nightclub when on the circuit, they not only learned lessons by punishment, but also humiliation, which their public profile brings. So qwert, I wrote what I meant, just not what you decided I meant! You are also apparently the arbiter of transgressions. As I noted in my post, journalists aren’t trained, nor do they operate in glass houses. Warner having a ‘rant’ at the media is a pale imitation of the thousands of paragraphs criticising him and as an Australian, he has an inalienable right to free speech. CA might try to homogenise players through contract threats, but everyone has a right to defend themselves, call out hypocrites and those with an agenda. I believe he oversteps at times, but having a go at the trashmedia certainly isn’t a transgression.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
People who can stay on point...
JohnnyRipe
Guest
Who do you admire then ?
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
"Australian cricket is better for having both sides of Warner" Pardon? Please explain this extraordinary statement. Exactly *how* Oz cricket has been "bettered" by Warners' throwing punches in nightclubs, launching drunken and abusive Twitter rants at journos, push and shove in the stairwell, and of course, his orchestrating of the ball-tampering disgrace. I can only assume that you meant something other than what you wrote.
Aiden
Guest
He’ll always have cheated. Fixed it for you. He has to be cheating to be a cheat.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
"It was just an excuse for people to dislike him more." "excuse"?? No, it was a reason.
qwetzen
Roar Rookie
So instead of wasting your time watching the sport, you’ve decided you should now spend your time just commenting on sports websites about how you won’t be wasting your time watching the sport. And I'm sure that ATW will be re-thinking that strategy after fanboi comments like yours.
JamesH
Roar Guru
I like it now that we're good at it! :stoked:
Jeff
Roar Rookie
I've been on a sabattical from The Roar recently Bob and am feeling muchly refreshed!
Big Daddy
Guest
Actually most people will forgive him but no-one will forget. Every time I see him I think about about that. I think his general demeanour even before that happened was arrogant. It was just an excuse for people to dislike him more.
Paul
Roar Guru
so could McGrath, Targa. He ws deservedly given the nickname Superbat, thanks to the huge number of centuries he should have scored, but for recognised bats at the other end,throwing their digs away!