SYDNEY: After putting behind his poor red-ball form with a century in the opening round of the 2019-20 Sheffield Shield, Australia opener David Warner looked back on his Ashes struggles and felt there wasn’t much else he could have done to turn things around.
Warner had a forgettable series in England, with 10 innings fetching 95 runs. More problematically, he was incessantly troubled by Stuart Broad, who dismissed the batsman seven times in 10 innings.
Warner especially remembered the dismissal at Lord’s, where Broad got one to cut back in from around the wicket to take out the leg-stump bail. It was from this angle that Broad troubled Warner, as he has many other left-handers in recent times.
“Me and Harry (Marcus Harris, his opening partner) spoke about it. What can you do?” Warner said. “If it’s in your first ten balls and you get a good one, you can’t do anything.
“I spoke to Broady about the one he bowled me at Lord’s and he said to me it’s probably one of the best balls he’s ever bowled, up the slope and nipping back in. It’s very difficult to do that repeatedly. I look back at that and just forget about it.”
Warner further sheds light on his thought process during those battles with Broad. “It was pleasing to hear Broady, the way he spoke about how he was trying to get me out,” he said. “You can’t generally play for the one that nips back because he’s actually just trying to bowl scramble seam and hoping one comes back.
“All my hard work was for the ball going away from my bat, and to his credit, he bowled extremely well. He pitched the ball up (much more) than his (overall) career, he had to go work on a lot of things, and credit to him, he’s bowled fantastically to left-handers over the last 18 months.”