Vizag, India, October 2010. A young David Warner walks into the nets ahead of a one-day international in which Shaun Marsh, Cameron White and Tim Paine will be among the players chosen ahead of him.
A couple of days earlier, Warner had spoken bluntly of his ambitions to do what Adam Gilchrist had done as a white-ball opener: “I see myself as similar to Adam Gilchrist, more of an X-factor player, where I go out there and try to mimic his role as he played. He was aggressive, he might’ve come off one in five innings as well, but he changed the course of the game.”
Big mistake.
David Warner ponders the baggy green cap ahead of his Test debut in 2011.Credit:Getty Images
In the nets, Warner copped it from teammates and staff alike, mockingly referred to as “Gilly” for the bulk of the session. Warner being Warner, he bit back, but it was clear the ambitious talk had not been appreciated within the team bubble.
Twelve years later, Warner has not only emulated Gilchrist in one-day cricket but surpassed his Test match tally. He has also bettered the Test century production rate of Virender Sehwag, the barnstorming Indian opener who encouraged Warner, and also prompted others, such as Greg Chappell, to imagine the left-hander had a future at the top. They were right.
Whatever one may think about the ball-tampering scandal in 2018 and its aftermath, Warner’s career is one of the most noteworthy in Australian history. None of the 14 players before him to reach 100 Tests have done so from quite such unlikely origins, where Warner was ever so close to being typecast as a white-ball varmint in the middle order.
“I got thrown into opening the batting,” Warner said on Christmas Eve in Melbourne. “I always thought I might have that dream of being a middle order batsman for Australia in one-day cricket specifically, not really Test matches.
“But to come out here and play my 100th Test where I started my Twenty20 career is amazing. Yeah, my back’s against the wall, but it’s in my DNA to be competitive and come out here and put a smile on my face and take on any opposition.”
It takes rare chutzpah to open the batting the way Warner has done, going on the attack rather than starting with defence and building an innings around that. Some of Warner’s predecessors, Michael Slater and Matthew Hayden to name two, struggled to keep the momentum and boldness going all the way through.
Warner and those closest to him have always known that the aggressive, proactive path was the best one for him to thrive, worrying bowlers off their lines and lengths while carving out a bridgehead for the rest of the batting order.
David Warner during his twin centuries in Cape Town in 2014.Credit:Getty
Some of the periods in which Warner has struggled – either with the bat or with his attitude and behaviour – have coincided with his faltering attempts to follow team orders. These included efforts by the team hierarchy to temper his aggression somewhat in 2012 and 2013, or the periods in 2014 and 2017-18 where Warner’s feisty side was played off with instructions to be the team attack dog.
“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,” Warner said candidly in 2015. “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.”
Similarly, Warner’s nightmarish 2019 Ashes series took place when his mindset and technical approach were geared too far towards defence and coverage of the stumps, rather than pressuring the bowlers. Should he make it as far as the 2023 series in England, Warner is unlikely to take the same tack.
“I know when I’m at my best and taking the bowlers on, it goes well and it flows with the team and the guy at the other end,” he said at the MCG. “I’ve probably got a bit more responsible and trying to get the team to a good position without playing too rash.
“If there’s anything, I can probably be a bit more aggressive and go back to the older me and take them on a little bit more. But that is also dictated with what wickets you’re getting.
“If I go out there, play a cover drive and nick one, you guys are going to have a feeding frenzy. Then I’m going to have to answer these questions. That’s the nature of the beast, but this might be a wicket where I can go out there and play the old me.”
The “old” Warner cuffed some incredible centuries against South Africa: Adelaide in 2012 to set up a day where Michael Clarke and Mike Hussey pushed Australia past 450 in a day, and Cape Town in 2014 when twin hundreds buttressed the team’s most recent series victory over the Proteas.
Whichever version of Warner takes the field on Boxing Day, he will do so primed by the familiar test of Pat Cummins and company in the nets.
“You look at the attacks I’ve faced over my career, I wake up every day and go into the nets and face the best attack in the world,” Warner said. “I’ve faced guys who bowl 145km/h every training session. So it’s not different for me. Am I scared going into those nets? 100 per cent I’m scared!
“But going out there and knowing I’ve put numbers on the board against some of the great attacks South Africa have produced, they stay with me when I go out there. Cape Town [in 2014] was probably my best whole batting performance. A lot of good things have happened when I’ve played South Africa.”
Warner, then, has plenty of good reasons to do things his way in Test match 100. Those Gilchrist comparisons have aged a lot better than the backhanders he once received in response.
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