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Warner ducks under Steyn barbs
- Updated: November 1, 2016
In the surest sign yet of his cricketing evolution, Australia’s vice-captain David Warner has done something once unthinkable for him and swayed out of the way of a verbal bouncer from South Africa’s spearhead Dale Steyn.
Tossed a recitation of Steyn’s words about “cutting off the head” of the Australian team by targeting their leadership, Warner refused to take a swat at it. This very notion would have seemed ridiculous little more than 18 months ago: just ask Jonathan “scared eyes” Trott or Rohit “speak English” Sharma.
But two days out from the start of a Test match that may well dictate the course of the summer for an Australian side still establishing a fresh identity under the leadership of Steven Smith and his deputy, Warner chose discretion to be the better part of valour. He even invited South Africa’s pacemen to get angry in the hope it would result in poor bowling.
“There are 11 players in the team and if Dale wants to start playing that game I’ll let him do that,” Warner said on Tuesday. “For us it’s about going out and doing our best, and if he feels that cutting the head off the snake then everyone else falls apart, I don’t see that happening at all.
“That’s the fast-bowler talk, we’re not going to entertain those thoughts or scenarios, we’re just going to go out there, back ourselves and what we do best. That is [to] play positive cricket. We know the conditions we’re going to face out here, so hopefully they do get carried away and start bowling short and fast, because at the end of the day you’ve got to bowl at the stumps to get wickets.”
Warner has taken to a nickname of “the reverend”, coined by team-mates for the way he has abstained from sledging and other inflammatory tactics in search of a more serene approach. Perhaps the most fascinating element of all this is it takes him away from the confrontational streak that has seemingly informed a lot of his best innings, notably his dominant tour of South Africa in 2014.
“I feel that it’s come more with maturity, that I’ve started to let my bat do the talking,” Warner said. …
