Indian head coach Rahul Dravid feels that it is not a simple task to dismiss the Australian veteran opener, David Warner in the World Test Championship final, despite his poor form in red-ball in recent times. In BGT 2023, the Australian Southpaw managed to score only 26 runs in three innings before being ruled out of the series due to an injury.
In his last 15 Tests innings, he has crossed the 50-run score just once which was the double century against South Africa in home conditions. However, Warner is backed to reclaim his spot at the top of the order for the WTC final, which will be played from June 7-11 at the Oval in London.
Speaking to the media ahead of the highly-awaited final against Australia, Rahul Dravid reckons that it is not that easy to dismiss the Australian opener, as he can be dangerous once he gets settled in the field, stating the example of him playing more than 100 games for his red-ball cricket.
“He (Warner) is a class player. It’s not as simple as just turning up and bowling round the wicket and getting him out, He wouldn’t have played a hundred times if it was that simple,” Rahul Dravid on David Warner.
Warner has a poor record in English conditions as he could perform below his standards in recent times in England as he compiled only 95 runs in 10 innings during the most recent Ashes campaign there in 2019.
There were a lot of talks around his place in the test team, as the Australian opener could not justify his selection in the side for the team in a longer format, though he has been a key member of the Australia team across formats for more than a decade now.
We Know It’s A Very Important Wicket To Get Early On – Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid admitted that due to the development of numerous data analytical tools, every team comes up with match-up against each other and reckons that David Warner too has his strength and weakness in batting and believes that it is important to get his wicket early on, in the game.
“There’s nowhere to hide anymore, everyone has very similar information about each other. It’s just how you counter that. Every batsman will have areas they’re strong at and areas that are not probably their strengths, and David has been very successful, We know it’s a very important wicket to get early on,” Rahul Dravid added.
Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj would look to exploit David Warner’s new ball weakness especially in the seaming England conditions, to give India a advantage in the important finals starting on Wednesday.