A few months back, the two were spending time at home serving their one-year bans. Now in England during the Ashes, Steve Smith is donning his Don Bradman avatar while David Warner is bringing out the Chris Martin in him.
While the former Australian skipper has registered 80-plus scores in each of his innings during the Ashes, Warner's returns have been slim. His series has gone from bad to worse with Stuart Broad clasping him an iron grip right through the series.
The England seamer has dismissed Warner in six out of eight innings this series. Warner has registered scores of 2, 8, 3, 5, 61, 0, 0 and 0 in the series so far and has been dismissed by Broad all six times from around the wicket.
A move that has worked wonders for Broad against left-handers is his ploy to come around the sticks to bring the lbw and edges more into play. His average against left-handers has become extraordinary once he started using this on a regular basis, even with the new ball.
In his incredible spell of 8/15 at Trent Bridge a few years back, Broad successfully executed it for the first time, dismissing all four left-handers in that innings from around the wicket. This series, 14 of his 19 wickets are left-handers. Six of those are Warner's wickets and the former vice-captain has appeared completely clueless against Broad.
Stuart Broad's bowling average in Tests this year (22.72) is his lowest for any calendar year, apart from 2011 when he averaged 22.30. #Ashes
— The CricViz Analyst (@cricvizanalyst) September 7, 2019
What's funny is that Broad's plan to Warner is pretty basic. He comes around the wicket, angles the ball into him and then gets it to straighten or go with the angle. It has confused Warner enough to yield his wicket in very similar fashion on six out of eight occasions. He has been leg before wicket thrice, bowled once and caught behind twice against Broad this series.
The left-hander's series average against Broad is a shocking 5.3. Since 2000, only one head-to-head record has yielded better numbers than Broad vs Warner. Morne Morkel dismissing Alastair Cook 12 times is the record. Broad has now gotten rid of Warner 11 times in Tests.
Smith, in his five knocks this series has made 80-plus scores each time. He has, however, converted only three of them to hundred-plus scores. Broad has been more consistent in dismissing Warner for single-digit scores. Of the 93 balls he has bowled at Warner this series, 80 are dot balls. Only 32 runs have been scored and there has been six dismissals.
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Feature image courtesy: AFP / Oli Scarff
