When it comes to cricket, England and Australia have been traditional rivals and the rivalry often spills into the behaviour of the cricketers. The Ashes Test series is one of the most hotly contested encounters in world cricket and the rivalry adds extra spice to the contest. However, Aussie opener David Warner believes that it is slowly changing with time and he opened up about his equation with England wicket-keeper Jonny Bairstow. Both played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad franchise in the Indian Premier League (IPL) and they went on to score 791 runs as an opening pair, which included four century stands.
“It was really bizarre because me and Jonny, we’ve never played with each other or against each other. We didn’t really know each other off the field. But as soon as we had the first net session and the first hit out, it was almost like we knew each other’s game so well. The best thing about our combination, that I knew deep down, was how fast we are between wickets,” Warner told Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz in Conversation.
“We just knew that if we bat the way we did in the first six – like we normally do – and then once the field goes out, we can pinch the odd one or two. If we can rotate strike, it’s going to frustrate a lot of people. I look back at the RCB game, I think (there were) 21 or 22 twos (during the partnership). It was frustrating the crap out of Virat. When Virat went out to field at midwicket, we were running twos to him. The thing is, when you’ve got that instinct anyone can do that. When you’re batting so well with someone, and gel well, you can turn ones into twos quite easily.”
“It’s one of those things where you go, ‘I don’t want to be friends with this person because we’re just against each other,” said Warner. “But in today’s environment, with IPL and all this franchise (cricket), there’s going to be a place and a time where you are going to be potentially playing with these people. You don’t really have the time anymore to not be friends. You have to be mates away from the game. That’s just how it is.”
