David Warner smashed 89* against West Indies to help Australia seal their spot in semifinals.
Australian head coach Justin Langer lauded opener David Warner and said that he was never in doubt about his ability to come good in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021.
Coming into the tournament David Warner was not in the greatest of form. He had the disappointing IPL 2021 and was dropped from Sunrisers Hyderabad team during the tournament.
Warner then failed to fire in the warmup games of T20 World Cup 2021 and followed it with yet another failure in the first game against South Africa.
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Just when the questions regarding his form started to flare up, the southpaw replied to all his critics in style by scoring a half-century against Sri Lanka to take his team home.
In Australia’s latest encounter against West Indies, David Warner set the stage on fire and played an unbeaten knock of 89 runs to help this team seal a spot in the semi-finals of the tournament.
Australian head coach Justin Langer stressed that David Warner has worked hard to return to form and it wasn't just a "flick of a switch". He said the opener's return to fitness is a tribute to his professionalism and hunger.
“He (Warner) is literally elite fit. He’s always fit, but he’s at a different level at the moment and that tells me … you don’t just flick a switch and become fit, you’ve got to work very hard at his age. You saw the way he played, ran between the wickets in hot conditions, and that’s a great tribute to his professionalism and how hungry he is to keep playing great cricket,” Justin Langer was quoted as saying in cricket.com.au.
Australia on Sunday (7th November) got the nod ahead of South Africa for the place in semi-finals on the basis of their Net Run Rate and will now take on ‘rampaging’ Pakistan side in the second semi-final of the tournament at Dubai.
While talking about playing against Pakistan’s batting consultant Matthew Hayden, Justin Lager revealed that he has been messaging southpaw throughout the tournament.
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He added that during the semi-final against Pakistan they’ll put their friendship down for three hours and will get down to the ‘business’.
“We’ve been back and forth messaging throughout the tournament. He’s (Hayden) really enjoying (coaching Pakistan’s batters). No insights though, we’ve been keeping business to business.
“It’s going to be good to see him because I haven’t seen him for a long time. There’s lots of relationships in cricket, but when it comes to Thursday night, we’ll put our friendships down for three hours and we’ll get down to business so it should be good fun,” he said.
(PTI inputs)