India has found perfect team balance: David Warner

Only a few hours later he would be accorded with the prestigious Allan Border Medal completing a dramatic turnaround that has seen him transform from the ‘problem child’ of Australian cricket to its ultimate match-winner. It’s been a period of his career where he’s displayed an unimaginable appetite for runs, the kind you don’t expect from as explosive a batsman as the left-hander.

But as he met the media at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport on Wednesday, the diminutive opener seemed more concerned about his hunger of another kind. While the rest of Australia’s cricketing fraternity was excitedly awaiting the results of the awards ceremony, Warner was looking forward to the dinner menu, on which he was hoping to locate some chicken. He then ruled himself out of the race, tipping Test and ODI captain Steve Smith to win instead. He was to be very wrong.

But the attention soon turned towards the T20 series, and the Australian batsmen’s biggest nemeses, spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, not to forget their impact on the opening game which went the visitors’ way. And Warner insisted that his team will have to tread carefully against the duo.

“Losing 4 for 50 in eight overs to spin is not ideal. Something we have to work on is trying to pinch those twos and hitting the ball down the ground. You can go for the odd big shot – generally that comes in the first two balls of the over – and then you’ve got to try and see if you can get six-seven an over after that. But in the first six overs, you’re always going to take your chances like Aaron (Finch) did last night,” Warner said.

The Australians fell short by 37 runs as Ashwin and Jadeja took two wickets each. Like India.

Preparation for World T20

Australia too are looking at these matches as preparation for the World T20. Considering that a number of the Aussies spend the Indian summer playing for the various IPL franchises, Warner feels that they will feel at home during the biennial event.

“If you look at the draw, we’re playing in Bangalore and Dharamsala, which are very much like Australia, with nice wickets to bat on. Obviously it’s going to be a different story when we go to Kolkata, it’s going to turn, going to be low and slow. We have to adapt there. And I think the big word is experience, it plays a massive role in this format. Hence why guys like Yuvraj, Raina are back,” Warner points out.

It’s this ‘experience’ that India have sought for in their squad, with 36-year-old Ashish Nehra opening the bowling at the Adelaide Oval and setting the tone for the rest of the attack. According to Warner, the knowledge that the likes of Shane Watson and Smith have gained over the years playing in India will come in very handy as Australia looks to challenge for the only world title that has evaded them. When asked about whether India seemed to have a better-balanced T20 team, Warner didn’t give much away but did admit that MS Dhoni & Co seemed to have found their best team.

“The team that they put out last night, they think it’s their best Twenty20 team. If you’re playing one-day cricket you need a different balance, you can’t just play three spinners in Australia, it’s not going to work. They wanted to bring out a pace attack and they did that. Look, they (the Australian batsmen) obviously know what they’re going to come up against when we go to India, and I think they’ll probably move forward with three spinners in Indian conditions,” he added.