It was a typical David Warner knock on a true Australian surface against a meek, inexperienced Pakistani bowling attack.
Cracking 16 fours and 3 sixes, while getting a couple of reprieves on which he made the most out of it, Warner notched up 150 runs at the start of the third session of Day 1 in Perth against Pakistan.
During the course of his innings, David Warner expressed issues with off-spinner Afga Salman’s wristband on his bowling arm. The Aussie opener looked frustrated and annoyed that he was having a bit of trouble with spotting the ball coming out of Agha Salman’s hand because of his wristband.
Agha Salman was not happy with Warner’s query, while the Pakistan captain Shan Masood carried a wry smile as this incident transpired.
It seemed like David Warner got miffed with Agha Salman’s response to his complaints as then the left-hander skipped down and smashed Salman for two sixes in his spell. Warner has smashed all three sixes so far in Australia’s innings, and two of them came on Salman’s bowling.
David Warner notched up 26th Test century; responds to critics
Warner taunted Mitchell Johnson with a finger-on-lips gesture during his celebration of his 26th Test century. Heading into his retirement Test series, Warner had been at the receiving end of scathing criticism from Johnson, who had called out his poor Test match form this year – before today, in 9 Tests in 2023, he averaged only 22 with merely two half-centuries in 16 innings – and also invoked his involvement in the Sandpaper gate scandal from 2018.
Speaking after his century, Warner said: “It’s my job to come here and score runs. It was good to get a couple of partnerships, first with Uzzie (Khawaja) and then with Smudge (Smith). (On his century) It does feel great, it’s about putting runs on the board for the bowlers. No better way to silence the critics than by putting runs on the board.”
