Everyone is allowed a bit of slump, I had that in England: Warner comes to Smith's defence

Once in a while, everyone is allowed a bit of slump in form and Steve Smith is exception, feels David Warner, who can relate to his former skipper's woes against India having endured a similarly wretched run during 2019 Ashes.

Smith has been in horrible form in ongoing series with R Ashwin removing him twice and Jasprit Bumrah once. But Warner believes that it's more about India bowling well n anything lacking in Smith's approach as he has left stone unturned in terms of preparation.

"Steve Smith has been recently kcked off by Kane Williamson as best batter in world (ICC ranking) but if you look at his numbers, he still avers over 60. Everyone is allowed to have a bit of lack of form and I saw that myself when I was in England (Ashes 2019)," Warner said in a virtual news conference on Saturday.

He believes that if faced with a good ball, any batsman can get out.

"On a day, if you have your name on that delivery, it is what it is and you can't do anything about it." "As you can see that it's t due to lack of preparation as guy (Smith) doesn't get out of nets. He works off his backside all time." For Warner, 84 Test experience that he possesses has taught him one thing -- intent and aggression should always be pre-meditated if one wants to unsettle opposition.

"My 84 Test matches have always been about pre-meditated attacks and it doesn't change for me but it's about how team looks at it. When I talk about intent, I mean by putting pressure back on bowlers t just by swinging bat.

"re are or ways of showing intent which could le m into bowling those odd full-pitched balls and short of length balls which you can pull or cut. That's what I talk about when I talk about putting pressure on bowlers.

"It's about going out re and playing your shots," said man, who has 7244 runs and 24 hundreds in 84 games.

What Warner has observed is that both Indian and Australian batsmen, for better part, have allowed rival bowlers to gain upper-hand.

"If you allow very good attacks, which both se teams have, to dictate ir terms, without applying pressure, n it becomes difficult to score. Both teams have lacked a bit of fluency at top in two Tests.

"You need to show that intent in loud calling, shoulders are back, you are in bowlers' face, unsettle ir line and length and I am speaking from experience." Warner has observed that Australia, in first two games (one of which y won), didn't do simple things like "tap and run" which does create pressure on opposition.

"Lengths are key to Australian wickets and y have been hitting some nice lengths as I heard from some of guys. Drive on up and drop and run and apply that pressure, some of that was missing.

"You can't allow great attacks to dictate terms to you as batsmen. It has its challenges by all means but you have got to play outside square (out of box) and be a little bit brave," he said.

"I would rar go out re swinging than sitting back on crease. If I am able to go out re, I will try and have that intent like I always have," Warner me it clear.

flamboyant batsman has often spoken about bio-bubble fatigue and even though groin injury happened at an ipportune time, Warner counts it as a blessing as it helped him spend some time with his young family.

"It was unfortunate eugh that I got injured but I was always going to have that time off. In my situation with three kids and a wife and having t seen m, it was a -brainer, trying to have that time off.

"At end of this series, we get a couple of weeks off, if we are t playing BBL and n back in bubble. How long we don't kw and if we have that vaccine coming along, n we will have a lot of things in air," he sounded hopeful.

Talk about pressure on him after Australia's defeat, Warner dispatched questions on any such apprehensions with same disdain with which he often dispatches poor deliveries in Test matches.

" pressure on myself. I kw what I have to do and I have h confidence to deliver every time I walk out to bat for Australia." 

Im credits: AP