Australia and England being “too friendly” through the course of the 2021/22 Ashes may have led to the latter losing some of their competitive edge, Shane Warne has said. The Australia spin great said that he wanted batters to hate him and that gave him an “extra edge” to try and bowl them over.
Warne made the comments while in the studio as the cameras showed pictures of David Warner and Mark Wood chatting in the middle before the start of the day’s play on Friday.
“Too friendly for my mine,” said Warne looking at the visuals. “When I say too friendly, let me clarify that – I think the series is played in great spirit and we want to see that camaraderie, I think back to 2005 Ashes, the spirit between both sides was outstanding and the skill on display captured the imagination of all the public, everywhere around the world.
“But I don’t know about this (Warner and Wood talking in the middle) just before the game. We don’t need a big full on chat every morning where every player is talking to every player,” said Warne.
Australia have already won the Ashes with England falling to an innings defeat in the third Test and the visitors, particularly their batting lineup and their team selection, have been roundly criticised.
“When you’re friendly with someone it’s pretty hard when you’ve got the ball in your hand down the other end to think ‘Oh he’s not a bad bloke this bloke’ and you don’t go easy on him but you haven’t got that extra (edge), I wanted the batsmen to hate me, I wanted them to absolutely hate me and smash me out of the park because then I had an edge,” he said.
