Why David Warner was always going to go big this summer
David Warner’s last two centuries have been the longest of his Test careers. That tells you all you need to know about his mindset and his desire to make swift amends for his Ashes failure.
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Australia’s cricket’s biggest innings are often played by driven men fired up by forces beyond the match they are playing.
It was almost inevitable the more David Warner suffered in England the more he would make other teams suffer when he got home.
His last two innings have been the longest of his Test careers. That tells you all you need to know about his mindset.
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Enough would never be enough this summer. If he went big he would try and go bigger.
The push for batting redemption following his Ashes torment by Stuart Broad would drive him through the summer.
Long before Warner made his highest Test score on Saturday, Bob Simpson finally cracked his maiden Test century in his 30th Test.
Once he cracked three figures, like Warner, he wanted to bat forever and ended up with 311 against England.
When you have waited 30 Tests to crack a century, the motivation to go big is endless.
Speaking of men with a point to prove, before Bob Cowper made a triple century against England in Melbourne there had been whispers that he had not been as fit as he could have been.
When he spoke to a journalist in the dressing room after the innings he opened with the line “hey, how fit am I now?’’
Before Mark Taylor made his epic 334 not out against Pakistan he had endured two years of averaging in the 20s.
Those results spurred him to get himself as fit as he had been for years and every run of his 334 was in some way balancing the books after his earlier drought.
To produce the mega-innings you don’t have to be motivated by forces outside the Test you are playing – but it never hurts.
Oddly enough you could tell how deeply motivated Warner was to cash in in Adelaide not so much by the shots he played but the ones he didn’t.
Drives and pulls have always come as easily to him as buttering his toast.
But that crucial and vastly underestimated shot – the leave – takes more effort because he has to fight his own instincts.
Warner claims he left the ball as well in Adelaide as he has in any innings he has played.
When Warner arrived home from England he put his bat away for a while and placed a fence around his emotions.
In looking forward he almost promised himself not to look back, to pretend as if it did not happen.
And away he went.
Australia has never had an opening batsman quite like Warner and may never do so again, a short form star who morphed into a brilliant five day player.
When he scored one more Test century he will have 24 for Australia and that will be a poignant moment because it will be the same number as Greg Chappell, one of the first big voices to declare Warner would eventually blossom from a white ball star into a genuine Test match star.
Originally published as Why David Warner was always going to go big this summer