By Malcolm Conn
David Warner has taken aim at his Ashes nemesis Stuart Broad, suggesting he won’t be the force who ruined the opening batsman’s 2019 tour this time around.
“He’s got to get selected first,” Warner told this masthead as the Australians continued their preparations for the World Test Championship final in London on Wednesday.
Broad has not been shy in firing public potshots at the Australians, but the expectation is that the veteran quick and his new ball partner Jimmy Anderson, 41 next month, will struggle to play in all five Ashes Tests, to be played over six weeks.
Broad is set to lead a depleted England attack in a Test against Ireland at Lord’s, beginning on Thursday, while Anderson (groin) and Ollie Robinson (ankle) are hopeful of being fit for opening Ashes Test.
Australia’s tour of England kicks off with the WTC final against India at the Oval from Wednesday, before the first Test against England at Edgbaston from June 16.
Warner, 36, readily gives credit to Broad for the way he was able to regularly move the ball off the seam at a full length, and concedes he was too defensive against the clever England seamer in 2019. But despite Broad’s domination, Warner is taking a relaxed approach to their next encounter.
David Warner celebrates after reaching 200 against South Africa.Credit: Getty
“I don’t really have any plans, to be honest, so if he gets selected, then I’ll adjust when I’m out there,” Warner said. “Hopefully, this time around I can come out and look to score and play in a positive way.”
Warner, 36, managed just 95 runs in five Tests at 9.5 during the 2019 Ashes tour and has struggled at times over the past two years, scoring just one century – his epic 200 in the Boxing Day Test last summer – amid 18 scores of 15 or less in 32 innings.
Strongly backed by captain Pat Cummins and coach Andrew McDonald despite his inconsistency, Warner says he has been given no ultimatum or expectations by the team leaders.
“I’m picked here for a series to play cricket,” Warner said matter-of-factly. “No one has spoken to me about any situation. I’m just here as an opening batter to continue my decade-long career.”
Stuart Broad celebrates dismissing David Warner during the 2019 Ashes series.Credit: AP
That, he hopes, will continue until the end of the next home summer for Test cricket and after next year’s Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA.
Warner believes he will also be in a better frame of mind than the last Test summer, which was overshadowed by Cricket Australia’s shambolic attempt to lift his lifetime captaincy ban.
“It was ridiculous,” Warner said. “I wanted to put it to bed and they kept on just dragging it out and not giving answers. No one wanted to be accountable, no one wanted to make a decision. You have an administration where there seemed to be a lack of leadership.
“They could have nipped it in the bud straight away, but I’m getting a phone call day one, two, three of the Test matches and speaking to lawyers etc when I didn’t need to. I actually felt disrespected in the way that I wasn’t able to actually have a clear mind to play the game and concentrate on the game.
Mitchell Starc described Stuart Broad’s recent comments about England’s 4-0 loss being void as “funny”.Credit: Getty
“So from that perspective it wasn’t even like, ‘Oh, let’s stop and we’ll come back to this.’ It was nine months, it was launched in February (2022). I was extremely disappointed.”
Despite the public tit-for-tat, Broad and Warner get on well and they shared a glass of red wine at the end of the last Ashes series in Australia.
Broad has been winding the Australians up, most notably with his recent claim that the 4-0 flogging of England in Australia two summers ago was “void” because of COVID restrictions.
Mitchell Starc said Broad’s claims were “funny”.
“The Poms had the pool, the gym, they were in a resort on the Gold Coast,” Starc said.
Nathan Lyon described Broad’s comments as “pretty poor”, saying “he’s probably just trying to get under our skin”, and Steve Smith suggested they were “a little bit odd”.
“He’s a nice guy and loves throwing out some good banter,” Smith said.
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