The Australian all-rounder Sean Abbott reveals David Warner’s right-hand batting style against Ashwin in the second ODI match of Australia tour of India 2023.
David Warner’s right-handed batting style
India is scheduled to play a three-match ODI series against Australia from September 22 and 27, where India leads the series 2-0. The second ODI match was scheduled on September 24 at Holkar Stadium where they won with 99 runs.
Winning the toss Australia chose to bowl, where Ruturaj Gaikwad and Shubman Gill opened for India while Spencer Johnson opened the bowling attack for Australia. While Ruturaj Gaikwad was dismissed by Hazlewood with 8 runs, Shubman Gill and Shreyas joined a partnership to score 200 runs. Shubman Gill scored 104 runs and was sent out by Green while Shreyas Iyer scored 105 runs and was sent out by Abbott.
KL Rahul had scored 52 runs on 38 deliveries and was sent out with Green, while Ishan Kishan was sent out with 31 runs. Suryakumar Yadav was impressive as he scored 72 runs on 37 deliveries. With Jadeja’s 13 runs, India set up a huge score of 399 runs in 50 overs losing 5 wickets.
With a huge target of 400, Matthew Short and David Warner opened the innings, while Mohammed Shami opened the bowling attack. Matthew Short was sent out with 9 runs while Steven Smith was sent out with a duck by Prasidh Krishna. Due to the rainfall, the overs were reduced to 33 overs and target was set to 317 runs.
David Warner scored 53 runs on 39 deliveries and was dismissed by Ashwin. Other batters were sent out with low figures as Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja dismissed three wickets each. Prasidh Krishna scalped two wickets. With batters struggled to face India’s intense bowling attacks, Sean Abbott scored 54 runs on 36 deliveries. With Hazlewood’s 23 runs, Australia was all out scoring 217 runs on 29 overs.
David Warner tried out an innovative batting style to help the team in the scorecard. But, Australia struggled against Indian bowlers in the match. On this occasion, the Australian bowler Sean Abbott reveals the reason for Warner’s right-hand style batting during the match.
He said, “I think that’s a testament to Ashwin’s skills, to be honest, because I think if Davey’s just going to sit there and bat left-handed and Ashwin he’s not going to miss his length, too often, and with the ball spinning so much, he’s got the one that goes the other way, the straighter one and all the variations that go along with that,” said Abbott when asked Warner’s unusual methods.
“David just thought he had to change it up. He plays golf right-handed. we obviously see how dynamic he is batting like doing his switch-hitting and stuff. So he weighed up those options. They actually might have spoken about it during the test match here (in March).
“He’s done it before he practices it in the nets. So I was like, ‘Oh, this is different but Davey’s Davey, so we just let him crack on, he’s a great competitor,” said Abbott.
“It was a difficult batting wicket in the end, facing their spinners. They’re very skillful. So we were going to have our work cut out for us.
“Before we went out there bat we had some glimpses of some good batting, especially from Davy and I just thought Ashwin and Jadeja on that wicket there, especially Ashwin… tremendous skills spinning it both ways as a finger spinner.
“He asked me if I was picking them and I was like, no chance, mate, so very difficult,” said Abbott.
“It is far from ideal. But at the same time, we’ve got such a great group in that, we’re communicating well out in the ground, but we’ve obviously just not executed as well as we would have liked.
“I’ve mentioned a couple of times already that our execution in bringing those stumps into play, owning our lengths, and putting pressure on the batters that way certainly has to improve. And I have no doubt of that. We’ve got a very skilled attack. Looking forward to the next game,” he concluded.
India will be playing their third ODI match against Australia on September 27 at Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium.
