Cricket World Cup: India’s love affair with David Warner

David Warner polarises Aussie cricket fans. But few, if any, non-Indian players have cultivated an image in the world’s second-most populous nation quite like the left-hander.

Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu holiday, typically falling in late August, marking the love between brothers and sisters.

At face value it seems like an occasion unlikely to be marked by a white man in his mid-30s who grew up in a Sydney Housing Commission flat.

But on August 30, David Warner posted a decorative image to Instagram wishing a Happy Raksha Bandhan to his older brother, Steve.

This was not unusual for Warner. Two weeks earlier he put up a picture of a cartoon hand holding an Indian flag. “To all my friends and amazing supporters in India, we wish you a happy Independence Day,” read the accompanying caption.

Scroll through Warner’s public social media accounts and intermingled with photos of his wife, Candice, and their three daughters, you will find a stack of content targeted at Indian audiences.

In May, the veteran opener adorned the cover of a promotional magazine for GMR Aerocity advertising a New Delhi business hub.

For cricketers to be used as commercial bait in India is nothing new.

But few, if any, non-Indian players have cultivated an image in the world’s second-most populous nation quite like the left-hander.

David Warner waves to Indian fans. Picture: Phil Hillyard

While Warner’s Australian brand took a hit in the immediate aftermath of the 2018 ball tampering scandal to the extent that he lost a longstanding partnership with electronics giant LG, his popularity in India has skyrocketed.

In recent months, Warner’s St Andrews Beach brewery announced it had launched in India.

Warner has shrewdly appreciated that to think of India as a uniform single entity is to misunderstand it. Indian culture is varied. Its states and regions have their own quirks, and Warner has managed to grasp them better than most Westerners.

In particular he found a second home in Hyderabad, where he spent seven years including a stint as captain with the Indian Premier League’s Sunrisers franchise.

When Australia played its warm-up match in Hyderabad against Pakistan, the stadium DJ repeatedly encouraged fans to clap and cheer for “our David Warner”. Every time Warner did something as simple as field a ground ball, the crowd erupted. When he took a catch, Warner unleashed the pushpa step, a dance move famous in local Telugu cinema, also known as Tollywood.

Warner’s mate and long-time opening partner Aaron Finch said there was mutual affection between Warner and the Indian public.

“He’s next level. Outside of the Indian players, he’s as big a star as there is in the cricket world here,” Finch told this masthead from Hyderabad where he had arrived to commentate on the World Cup

“I think that comes down to embracing the culture, embracing the fans, embracing everything that comes with playing cricket in the subcontinent, and done a wonderful job doing that. He’s never shied away from social media or the media or anything. He’s done a great job. And I think what the fans have given him and what he’s given them I think is a really fair trade-off.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner lifts the trophy after his team’s victory against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2016 Indian Premier League final. Picture: AFP Photo / Manjunath Kiran

David Warner was in blistering form in the World Cup lead-in matches. Picture: Pankaj Nangia/Getty Images

The constant attention can overwhelm. It is not an environment for everyone, but Warner has thrived.

“In the early stages, just how big cricket is can probably get to you at times,” Finch said. “And at times just how little personal space you can have when you‘re sitting down having a meal and there’s people just coming up for photos or whether it’s you’re walking through the airport and people literally just grabbing a shirt I think 24/7.

“He’s done a great job at embracing that.

“At times it can again feel like you’re in a bubble the whole time. The players that have succeeded the most are the ones that do embrace that. And find the best ways to deal with it.”

Though his Test record in India is middling, Warner has an exceptional one-day international record in the country, averaging more than 52 with the bat heading into what will be his final World Cup.

He enters this tournament in great touch, too, having made a century, four 50s and a 48 in his eight most recent knocks in the lead-up.

Player of the tournament when Australia won the T20 World Cup two years ago in the UAE, Warner is primed to finish his ODI career with a bang.

“I’m just hoping that somebody in the media writes him off over the next week or so,” Finch says.

“We know when somebody writes him off how quick he bounces back and how important he is to that Australian top order. In every challenge that’s been thrown his way his whole career, he’s met that head-on and proved a lot of people wrong.

“So hopefully somebody writes him off over the next couple of days and he can come out and have another huge World Cup. He saves his best for the World Cups. If you look at his World Cup record, it’s unbelievable. He’s batting beautifully at the moment.

“How still he is at the crease just shows how much confidence he’s got in his game.”

Coach Andrew McDonald is similarly bullish.

“His capabilities have never left him and what we’re seeing at the moment is a guy that’s really engaged around the challenge of winning a World Cup,” McDonald said.

“There’s no doubt that the end is nearer than the start for David Warner. This will be his last World Cup and potentially for a few others as well. So it’s a great opportunity for him to go out and put his exclamation mark on a sensational white-ball, one-day career for Australia.”