Ashes 2019: Can Warner survive Australia’s new-look team environment?

David Warner is under pressure to perform in Leeds. Picture: Getty Images

This is being written from a distance. I haven’t seen Dave Warner in the nets at Leeds. I haven’t bumped into him in the lift at the hotel. I haven’t peered over my newspaper at the breakfast buffet to see how he’s behaving around the team. A bit off your food, old mate?

But I wonder how Warner feels, deep down, about this new Australian environment. I wonder if he feels restrained. Unable to unleash his natural mongrel instincts. These days, it’s a no-no for Australian players to act like Warner has done in the past. Which must be a psychological nightmare for Warner himself.

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Post-sandpaper, the players have been told to ditch the aggro that has previously characterised the team. The chief aggro artist? Warner. You have to mind your Ps and Qs, help old ladies across the street and resist the temptation to get completely down and dirty.

Warner is basically no longer allowed to be who he used to be on a cricket field. This may be a good thing for the image of Australian cricket. And it may be a doubt-producing, confidence-shaking, career-threatening thing for Warner. He’s slogged T20 and ODI hundreds since the Cape Town disaster, but Test cricket is a more searching examination of his psyche. I wonder if he still feels like his true self on a field. If not, he’s in strife. The failures in red-ball cricket are adding up.

Warner’s work in the field at Lord’s left a lot to be desired. Picture: Getty Images

Warner has been previously aggressive in the field, with body language and tongue, and then taken the same mindset into his batting. Now he’s obliged to temper his whole routine. He’s always been all-or-nothing. Now he has to turn it on and off.

It may not be possible for him to act like a choir boy but then bat with fire and brimstone. He has to keep his mouth shut. Turn the other cheeks. Put a sock in it. Leave the sandpaper, and everything it stands for, at Bunnings.

But elite sport is an act of self-expression. The greats say they never feel more comfortable in their own skin than when they’re competing. For the first time in his career, Warner has looked apprehensive. He’s being a good boy on the field. Which may be the worst thing for him.

Bet your life on the fact he wants to get stuck into Jofra Archer. With tongue and bat. He’s only allowed to do the latter. That has to be frustrating. His whole on-field persona has been extroverted and fearless and unfiltered. It’s flowed into his batting. It’s all been one and the same.

Will the real Dave Warner stand up at Headingley tonight? Perhaps deep down, he feels as though the real Warner is no longer allowed to. This Test may be his finest moment if he fires in the absence of Steve Smith.

If his failures continue, the old-fashioned brawler in Warner will look increasingly uncomfortable in this new-look era of Australian cricket. From this distance, he looks like someone trying to please others. Which may not be pleasing, nor beneficial, to himself.

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