Ricky Ponting, Australia’s assistant coach, has fired a straight warning to the World Cup challengers, citing that ‘Warner at his best’ will ‘make you pay’.
Warner, who delivered a match winning performance against Pakistan (107 off 111 deliveries) on Wednesday, endured a cagey start to his World Cup campaign. His unbeaten 89 against Afghanistan in Australia’s tournament opener came off 114 ball, which is well below the ‘Warner standard’. A disappointment against West Indies was followed by another slow half-century against India.
Although the 32-year-old hasn’t put a foot wrong thus far, he has been performing at a slower strike rate than usual. And the Australian assistant coach, Ponting, believes that it is just a result of coming back from a year-long gap.
"We'd all seen that he (Warner) probably hadn’t been batting as fluently as we're used to seeing," Ponting told cricket.com.au.
"Having spoken to him after the last game at The Oval. It was more of a mental thing than anything, he was just holding back a little bit and not playing with the freedom we're used to seeing him play with.
"He had a pretty relaxed day yesterday (Tuesday), he didn't do any batting, he wanted to come into the game with a fresh mind.
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"You could see by the way he moved into his shots and picking up the length early, he hit a lot of pull shots early in his innings, which is always a good sign for him. He'd taken the handbrake off which has allowed himself to play with a bit more freedom. If he keeps playing like that for the rest of the tournament, he's probably going to be the leading run scorer," the former Australia captain said.
Speaking about his effect, the former captain also said that the other teams, including Sri Lanka who Australia are set to face on Friday, should be fearful about him.
“I think they should. You know with David Warner at his best, if you miss your line and length then he’s going to make you pay.
“Every game is a different set of challenges for every player. Davey capitalised on Pakistan not executing as well as they could have. We know against Sri Lanka, they’ll be well-planned. But Warner at his best is difficult to bowl to and I think he was back to somewhere near his best.”
Feature image courtesy: AFP / William West
