Ashes 2021-22: David Warner says England bowlers repeated mistakes by bowling too short

David Warner has offered his advice to England after Australia reclaimed the Ashes, saying that one element of the Old Enemy’s play hasn’t changed since last tour.

Australia's batsman David Warner in Adelaide. Picture: AFP

England’s career-killing campaign could’ve been avoided if its flawed batters prepared for Australia’s bouncy pitches on synthetic wickets and its bowlers didn’t repeat the same old mistakes as previous Ashes tours, according to David Warner.

Joe Root has found an unlikely ally in Warner, who echoed the England captain’s disbelief that for the third-straight series in Australia his attack had failed to threaten because it had bowled disastrously short.

“The last two times England’s been here they’ve been way short of their length,” Warner said.

“In England that back of a length is still hitting the stumps. (But) if you bowl that length at the Gabba or Adelaide, you’re not really hitting the stumps.

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Australia v England - 3rd Test: Day 1

“You have to be brave enough to pitch the ball up here. We feel as a batting unit when England pitch the ball up, we drive them down the ground … but you have to do that to create the chances, to create the bat pad gap to create those nicks.

“With ‘Woody’ (speedster Mark Wood) anything short of a length I can cut and pull. That’s how I tend to go about.”

But Warner — who has cashed in with first-innings scores of 94, 95 and a blistering 38 on a tricky MCG deck — said even West Australian quicks sometimes struggled to pitch the ball up on the east coast.

So the Aussies wrapped up the third Test (and the #Ashes‼️) inside three days at the MCG. Scott Boland was unplayable.
Day 3 highlights 👇 pic.twitter.com/mbf8cT97Qp

— News Cricket (@NewsCorpCricket) December 28, 2021

Root labelled day two his team’s best for the summer as Jimmy Anderson’s class led a stirring fightback by bowling what Warner said was his English line and length.

But they were gone in just 80 minutes on day three with the MCG rout the shortest Test played in Australia in 71 years.

That was due to another humiliating batting collapse and England’s average of 18.8 runs per wicket this series is its worst since 1890.

England batters have been regularly walking back to the pavillion this summer. Picture: AFP

Root and No. 3 Dawid Malan – quasi-openers due to the England’s three openers all failing in every innings – have averaged a solid 42.2 and 33.7 respectively.

But Chris Woakes is their next highest run-scorer despite the fast bowler only playing two Tests. Ben Stokes (averaging 16.8), Jos Buttler (19.2), Haseeb Hameed (10.8) have all underperformed while Rory Burns (12.5) and Ollie Pope (12) have been dropped.

“From a batting point of view, the bounce is a big one,” Warner said.

“I would probably suggest going on the synthos (synthetic wickets) and practising the bounce, doing that in England (before coming to Australia).

“You’ve always got to find ways to prepare and the only way you can prepare for bounce is on synthos in England.

“Then you’re trying to adapt here when you come to Australia.”

Axed quicks Stuart Broad and Woakes as well as unseen spinner Dom Bess and batter Dan Lawrence hit the MCG on Wednesday, which was supposed to be day four of the Boxing Day Test.

Warner’s confession: Why England great is my driving force

David Warner is open to batting on for an Ashes farewell tour on the eve of his 37th birthday as he vowed to launch another all-out attack on England’s bowlers on his home SCG pitch next week.

The veteran is drawing inspiration from 39-year-old Jimmy Anderson — but suggested England may drop its best bowler for Stuart Broad in the fourth Test.

While Australia retained the Ashes with a drawn series in England in 2019, Warner declared he wanted to help Australia win a series in the motherland for the first time since Steve Waugh’s champion team stormed to a 4-1 victory 20 years ago.

“I still haven’t beaten India in India, which would be nice to do, and obviously England away,” Warner said.

David Warner has presented at the top of the order as a different style of batsman this series. Picture: Michael Klein

“We obviously had a drawn series. If I manage to get that chance and opportunity (to return to England in 2023) I might think about going back.

“James Anderson sets the benchmark for older guys these days. We look up to him.”

Broad terrorised Warner in 2019 with figures of 7-35.

Warner — who has overtaken Mark Taylor as Australia’s second-most prolific opener behind Matthew Hayden — said a rematch with England in 2023 would see him bat far more aggressively.

The left-hander hinted selectors would jet an overhauled batting line-up to the subcontinent for next year’s tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka, when leg-spinner Mitchell Swepson is expected to partner Nathan Lyon in the same attack.

David and Candice Warner with children Ivy, Isla and Indy at the MCG on Christmas Day. Picture: Instagram

“Those two (series) will really show where we are as a team and our character,” Warner said.

“Selectors look at the batting line ups with who they feel is going to be better on those subcontinent wickets and whose not. There’s going to be some brave decisions being made.”

Former Test opener Matthew Renshaw has evolved in Queensland’s middle order to become one of the state’s best batsmen against spin bowling while Glenn Maxwell — who is unavailable for the Pakistan series due to his wedding – has scored a precious Test century in Ranchi facing those conditions.

Warner hammered England with an ODI-style knock of 38 (42) on Boxing Day and said attack was the best form of defence at the MCG and SCG.

Warner has been extremely reliable this summer achoring the team’s top order with a couple of big knocks.

“The MCG and SCG are quite similar. The SCG doesn’t go up and down, if anything it gets lower and slower,” he said.

“That will be another venue where I probably have to go at the bowlers a little bit more.”

Warner — named player of the tournament in November’s T20 World Cup triumph — has punched aggressive Test scores of 85 (84), 101 (114), 122 not-out (103), 113 (95), 55 (27) and 111 not-out (159) at the SCG.

Warner’s strike-rate of 72 ranks No.3 in Test history for players who have scored more than 2000 runs, behind Virender Sehwag (82.2) and Adam Gilchrist (82).

But Warner was a different beast in the first two Ashes Tests, crawling to 94 (178) at the Gabba and 95 (167) at Adelaide Oval.

“The first two Tests I actually looked like a proper batsman,” he said.

“It’s almost like I played my career the other way. I had to knuckle down and respect the bowling.

“The hundred eluded me. I was out of runs (before the T20 World Cup) — not out of form.

“Hopefully I can put some more runs on the board leading into the New Year.”

Originally published as Ashes 2021-22: David Warner says England bowlers repeated mistakes by bowling too short