Warner to stop swinging at Moeen

Having perished at the hand of Moeen Ali three times from his four innings in the current Ashes series, David Warner concedes it might be time to throttle back on preconceived plans to belt England’s spinner out of the attack at first sight.

Warner and his fellow Australia top-order batsmen, most notably Steve Smith in the first innings of the opening Test at Cardiff, have not bothered to disguise their willingness to hoe into Moeen from the moment he enters the attack.

In Cardiff, Smith belted three boundaries from the first four balls he received from the developing spinner only to surrender his wicket to him six runs later when his desperation to get down the pitch saw him end in an unsightly tangle.

Even more culpable was Warner’s dismissal on the opening morning at Lord’s, when he squandered access to a pitch gift-wrapped for batting by charging headlong at Moeen’s first over and miscuing his third attempted boundary heave to the delight of England’s bowlers and the disapproval of most others.

David Warner dismissed by Moeen Ali // Getty Images

Warner said the tactic to put pressure on the spinner – denying him a chance to settle into a rhythm, putting pressure on his captain to remove him from the attack and therefore upping the workload on the seamers – had been a valid plan against Moeen’s predecessor Graeme Swann in the previous series.

But as experience and raw data shows, Moeen is not yet the spinner that Swann became and the Australians have decided they might be better advised to bide their time against him and simply wait for the loose deliveries that will invariably arrive.

"When we talk about Graeme Swann - fantastic bowler,” Warner said today as the Australians prepared for their three-day tour match against Derbyshire that precedes the third Test beginning in Birmingham next Wednesday.

“I think the difference with Swanny was he was very consistent and always in the same areas.

“It was hard for you to score as a batsman, so you had to try and change the patterns.

“With Moeen, I don't think we really have to go as hard against him.

“No disrespect to Moeen, but you will get that bad ball whereas Swanny was relentless and you never really got that bad ball, especially as a left-hander.

“The other day (at Lord’s), coming out probably too hard and too aggressive was probably silly on my behalf.

“It was a brain snap but my plan was to go after him.

“I always say I will go down the way I want to go down, and that’s what happened but when I look back at it cost me a fair few runs.”

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The need to pay Moeen a bit more respect despite the modest results he has achieved in his Test bowling career to date are likely to be compounded by suspicions that England might consider playing two spinners at Edgbaston.

The pitch there has been known to favour slow bowlers during the current county season, and England coach Trevor Bayliss – when asked for his thoughts on uncapped Yorkshire legspinner Adil Rashid after the Lord’s Test – indicated he would like to play a pair of spinners “at some stage in the series”.

On anecdotal evidence, albeit with little early intelligence on the state of the Edgbaston pitch a week out from the Test, Birmingham might be that stage.

READ: 'Easy wicket' to replace 'easy wicket' at No.3

Pitch preparation has been a constant talking point throughout the first two Tests, with slow and lifeless tracks prepared at SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff and again at Lord’s last week.

But Warner believes the tactic might have proved more costly to England than it has to the Australian fast bowling complement and the tourists’ top-order batters, which the sluggish pitches are supposed to nullify if you subscribe to popular wisdom.

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He claimed that he and opening partner Chris Rogers sensed the England attack led by James Anderson and Stuart Broad was “flat” on the opening morning Lord’s as a result of the energy they had expelled in securing a series-opening win in Cardiff.

“You've got two world-class bowlers (Anderson and Broad) and the wickets that we're playing on are pretty flat and it's grinding - it really is grinding,” Warner said.

“They've used reverse-swing in the past, beaten teams away from home on low, slow wickets as well.

“That's where they probably thought our weakness was and the other day (at Lord’s), going out there - that first spell was very unusual.

“It just felt a lot different, especially from a batter's point of view.

“Broady bowled his first two down leg, Jimmy bowled a couple in the right areas and then it felt like their energy wasn't there.

“So I said to Bucky (Rogers) ‘this could be our day to get on top of them’ because we saw with our bowlers in the first Test that if you didn't get it right, it was going to go (for runs).

“Personally I felt they were a little bit flat in that first spell.”

Australia opener David Warner made his second half century of the series with his impressive 83 at Lord's on day four (Australia only)

The scorecard shows Australia went on to be 1-337 at the close of the first day before steamrolling on to win by 405 runs and level the series.

READ: Yin and yang openers get along fine

However Warner, who had failed to capitalise on his starts in his first three innings before being gifted a life in his fourth and compiling a tidy 83, knows there will be few easy runs against the new ball regardless of who is wielding it.

He is aware of England’s bowling plans to deny him width, prevent him from getting a free swing at the ball and is wrestling his natural instinct to go hard at the bowlers – particularly the spinner who he has seen as his best source of runs – in order to build a more circumspect if unfamiliar innings.

“Before every series we sit down in team meetings and work out how a bowler can get you out, and at the moment I have probably played three cover drives - that’s their plan,” Warner said.

“They are not giving me any width, they are bowling straight at my body, Jimmy (Anderson) is swinging the ball away.

“For me it is working out how to keep scoring runs and at the moment being patient is the way.

“The last two innings (at Lord’s) and in Cardiff the last innings, I think I have worked out what I have to do.

“I am not getting any freebies in the first spell that’s for sure, so it’s all about hard work.”

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