Australian opener David Warner broke his almost three-year-long century drought in Test cricket with a record-breaking ton in the ongoing Boxing Day Test against South Africa at the MCG on December 27.
Playing his 100th Test, Warner hammered an incredible 200 before retiring hurt in the ongoing second Test between Australia and South Africa, and his wife Candice Warner hopes the cricketer’s record-breaking knock will now silence his critics.
The 36-year-old opener was facing a lot of criticism due to his poor form, but he gave them a befitting response with his bat at the MCG, and Candice said that she was incredibly proud of his husband.
Candice Warner was quoted as saying by The West Australian: “Just incredibly proud. A sense of relief. David’s back has been against the wall and everyone has been saying he’s too old or he should retire, but first of all, to hit 8000 Test runs is a huge milestone and then to get a Test century — hopefully now people will sort of back off him a little bit.”
Taking a dig at Cricket Australia, Candice said that Warner didn’t get any support from the board over the captaincy saga, and it was not really a good time for the opener.
She added, “It hasn’t been an easy summer with the bat, but also behind the scenes, he hasn’t really received a hell of a lot of support where it’s needed. He’s very grateful for his teammates, his coaching staff, and his friends and family who are all here today, but it hasn’t been easy. If it comes down to the captaincy stuff, if we’re talking about that, it’s been dragged on and it shouldn’t have.”
Candice also said that they knew Tuesday was going to be a special day and Warner would deliver something special for the MCG crowd.
Mrs. Warner noted, “Everything else is behind him now, he came here and he was ready to go. He’s had a little bit of bad luck in the last few Tests but he knew what he wanted to do and he executed it beautifully. It’s funny everybody says form slump, but that’s not the words he’s been using, it’s not the words everyone has been talking about in the change rooms.”
She signed off by saying, “He just hasn’t scored the runs that he’d like, but he’s such a positive person, he knows what he has to do at training to get the best out of himself. We knew that today was going to be special, we knew that this Test, besides being his 100th Test, he was going to deliver.”
Warner became only the second batter to hit a double ton in his 100th Test after England's Joe Root.
