Having put England’s bowlers to the sword and lifted Australia into an impregnable position through his controlled innings of 124 and a 158-run partnership with his captain, David Warner has turned his glare England’s collective psyche and Jonathan Trott’s ongoing batting woes.
Warner turns up the heat on Trott
In a combative post-match media conference, Warner declared that the England players betrayed “scared eyes” in the face of Australia’s rejuvenated new-ball attack.
And he went on to label Trott’s latest failure at the hands of a carefully-executed Australian bowling plan as “poor” and “weak”.
“Our bowlers are bowling fast at the moment and England are on the back foot,” he said. “It does look like they’ve got scared eyes at the moment, and the way that Trotty got out today was pretty poor and pretty weak.
“Obviously there’s a weakness there and we’re probably on top of it. I think he’s got to get new sledges as well, because it’s not working for him at the moment.
“We’ve seen him work hard in the nets on the short ball but trying to face a 150kph short ball from Mitchell Johnson the way probably not to go is to back away.”
Warner’s century was his fourth in Tests, and his first in more than 12 months – his most recent coming against South Africa in Adelaide last summer – having lost his place in the Australian line-up following the ill-fated tour of India earlier this year.
Upon reaching the milestone with a crisp cover drive from auxiliary off-spinner Joe Root, the man who contributed to Warner’s exclusion from the team when their paths famously crossed in a Birmingham nightspot, the opener unleashed his emotion in a spirited celebration. He leapt in the air, thrust his bat towards to his teammates and punched the sky with the hand in which he grasped his Australian batting helmet.
While he was reluctant to dwell too much on the significance of his innings other than to claim it was his job to score runs at the top of the order, he paid credit to his skipper Michael Clarke who showed intent and confidence that belied his own recent struggles against short-pitched bowling.
“He was fast on his feet today, and that’s what he talks about with his game,” Warner said. “If he’s fast on his feet he’s ready to go and he’s always going to look good, which he did today.
“He backed himself, played the pull shot when it was there and when it wasn’t there he ducked out of the way.”