World Test Championship final: India coach Rahul Dravid on the plan for Australian opener David Warner

He’s flagged next summer’s SCG Test as the perfect retirement – but will David Warner even make it to the first Ashes Test in two weeks? It’s no certainty if India has its way.

India could look to the Stuart Broad playbook in seeking to counter David Warner at The Oval however coach Rahul Dravid says it would be oversimplifying things to believe that the Australian veteran cannot counter right-arm pace from around the wicket.

While Warner has flagged his ideal Test retirement mark of next January’s SCG Test against Pakistan, the destructive opener is fighting to make it that far having been given no public guarantees from selectors that he will keep his spot beyond this week’s World Test Championship final against India beginning on Wednesday.

Warner has never made a Test century on English soil and famously averaged less than 10 in the 2019 Ashes series in which he was tormented by the relentless line of Broad, who repeatedly targeted Warner from around the wicket.

Stuart Broad celebrates the wicket of David Warner at Old Trafford in 2019. Picture: Stu Forster/Getty Images

Broad looms large in the Ashes should Warner keep his spot, however, India has a couple of outstanding right-arm seamers in its ranks in the form of Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj, both of whom have caused issues for Australia in the past.

Dravid, himself one of India’s finest batters, said Warner would be analysed in depth like any player, but that removing a man with 25 Test centuries was not as easy as picking which side of the umpire to bowl from.

“He’s a class player, it’s not as simple as just turning up and bowling around the wicket and getting him out,” Dravid said.

“He wouldn’t have played 100 Test matches if it was that simple. He’s a very good player. He’s going to still be able to execute from over and around the wicket. Of course, just as they do, we will also have looked at videos and seen what other teams have done or the lines they’ve bowled to him, what sort of lengths. Everyone does that sort of thing. The batsmen know exactly what you’re looking at.”

Dravid added that in this day and age, there were very few technical secrets in cricket.

“So honestly, there’s not very much that’s there to hide anymore because of data and video analysis. Everyone knows what you’re looking at. Everyone has honestly very similar information about each other. It’s just how you deal with that, how you counter that. And every batsman will have areas that they’re strong at and ar

India’s Mohammed Shami, right, has also given Warner issues recently. Picture: Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

eas that they, I wouldn’t say a weakness, but areas that are not probably their strengths.

“And David is someone who’s been very, very successful in managing that. And that’s the reason why he’s played 100 test matches. And we know that’s a very important wicket to get early on.”

Despite its status as a cricket superpower, India has not won an ICC event for a decade, losing the 2021 WTC final to New Zealand, but Dravid downplayed suggestions that the drought was an issue.

“No, not at all. I mean we don’t feel any pressure in terms of trying to win an ICC trophy. Of course, it would be nice to do it. It would be certainly nice to be able to win an ICC tournament. But also in the context of things, you look at this and you see this is the culmination of two years of work.”