As he nears his 29th birthday, David Warner does not want to be the chief on-field “attack dog” anymore, and away from the middle he wants to keep a lower profile
Daniel Brettig in Kingston10-Jun-2015In the early weeks of Australia’s tour to the Caribbean, David Warner made waves for not making them. He was quiet, withdrawn, and not given to social interaction with teammates and team staff who had grown used to a far louder, more jack-in-the-box persona.The difference was so pronounced that it caught the attention of the coach Darren Lehmann, who spoke with Warner about it. While accepting Lehmann’s counsel, Warner is determined to reposition himself, both on and off the field.Warner has told ESPNcricinfo the changes witnessed in the early days of this trip were deliberate, and a statement of intent. As he nears his 29th birthday, Warner does not want to be the chief on-field “attack dog” anymore, and away from the middle he wants to keep a lower profile. In Dominica, this was personified by how Warner threw himself around the field with considerable abandon, but was hardly glimpsed in confrontation with the opposition.These decisions will have considerable implications for the Australian team, but Warner hopes they will ultimately result in a most critical benefit – consistent runs, and bigger hundreds.”My approach the last couple of weeks, I sat down and had a think about what lies ahead for me and how much cricket there is coming up over the next 18 to 24 months,” Warner said. “For me it’s about conserving my energy. In the everyday world, everyone knows that sitting down and having a conversation with someone can be draining and energy-zapping.”So when you’re in big groups and around each other all the time at training, you want to give 100% at training and you’re committed in the nets and try to help out as much as you can, but you’ve got to try to conserve as much energy as you can. I’ve quietened down a little bit around the guys, and it’s more about myself for the longevity of my career and giving your all when you’re actually out there for Australia.”Much of Warner’s energy had recently been directed at numerous unfortunates on the opposing side. Under the leadership duo of Lehmann and Michael Clarke, Warner had been given licence – sometimes even instruction – to instigate confrontations with opponents and rile them to distraction. Jonathan Trott, AB de Villiers, Faf du Plessis, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are just a few of the players he has crossed, resulting in several fines.
“In the past I’ve been someone who’s been told to go out there and do this and do that, but at the end of the day I’ve got to look after myself. If I don’t want to be that instigator, I don’t have to be that instigator.” – David Warner
Warner is conscious of the fate that befell Andrew Symonds, an earlier man tasked with the job of giving no quarter to opposing teams, and he now wants respect as well as success. Given his hyper-competitive nature and predilection for motivating himself through the occasional stoush, it will be a challenging transition to make. It is possible to imagine players he has berated in the past wondering what has come over him.”There’s times when you need to try and keep quiet, but what people perceive me on the field as … the ways I’ve approached the game on the field the last couple of years, I created that myself,” Warner said. “I’m always in the heat of the battle. I’m always the one who’s going at the batters, not saying I’m not going to do that, but every opportunity there is out there it always seems to be cameras on me.”So I’ve got to be smarter, on my game, and make sure I don’t get too carried away with being in that moment. Now at 28, almost 29, I’ve got a daughter I love dearly. Settling down and maturing can happen on the field as well. My goal for … hopefully I play longer than five years … is to be the person who gets that respect from people.”Whether the team is happy with Warner taking a back seat from acts of sledging or gamesmanship remains to be seen. Lehmann’s desire for his teams to “go hard” at opponents is well known and was epitomised by the brilliance married with boorishness during this year’s World Cup final. Asked how the team felt, Warner said it was ultimately up to him to choose how he conducted himself.”It’s up to me to deal with that,” he said. “In the past I’ve been someone who’s been told to go out there and do this and do that, but at the end of the day I’ve got to look after myself, and that’s what everyone does. There are people who do talk and don’t talk on the field. If I don’t want to be that instigator, I don’t have to be that instigator. So time will tell. I’ve learned a lot over the last five years.”And what of Warner the batsman? The West Indies is a place that has challenged him, both in 2012 on his first overseas tour as a member of the Test team and this time as he contemplates a new approach. The more prominent seam of the Dukes ball has been one area of challenge, the combination of slow pitches and slow outfields another. What he wants more than anything else are big hundreds. Should he make them, it is hard to see many members of the team minding that it is a different Warner doing so.”I’ve still got to go out there and play the game as I play it, because if I get bogged down and go defensive it’s not going to help my game, I’m not going to score any runs,” Warner said. “So I need to take on the bowlers but respect the bowlers as well. I’ve done that in the past, shown what I can do and that’s the approach I’ll keep taking.”Moving forward the challenge for me is to turn hundreds into big hundreds and not to be content and complacent when I’m out there. I need to keep working hard as I can in these conditions to try to bat time as an opening batter. It’s great to be 1 or 2 for 250, but I want to be the person who’s there when we’re 400 or 500. That’s where I’ve learned a lot since previous tours in these kinds of conditions, and I think that’s going to help immensely.”So there it is, David Warner as silent(ish) assassin. He, and we, will see how it fits.
