Wade hopeful of ‘birthday boy’ Warner returning to form

Australia’s Mathew Wade is hopeful that David Warner will come back to his usual self in the ICC T20 World Cup, where the opener is yet to fire.

Warner had a rough patch in the Indian Premier League for Sunrisers Hyderabad, where he cut sorry figures in the UAE and eventually got omitted from the playing XI.

The left-handed opener also hinted that he will not be playing for Hyderabad in the coming seasons.

Warner, who turned 35 on Wednesday, received an emotional message from his wife, Candice Warner, who could not accompany him on this occasion due to the bio-secure protocol of the T20 World Cup.

“Happy Birthday to the World’s best dad and my incredible husband @davidwarner31. Sorry, we can’t be with you to celebrate but we are always with you in your heart. Have a great day my darling. We miss you and love you”, Candice wrote on Instagram posting a picture with Warner.

This might inspire him to come out of his bad patch and play a fine knock against Sri Lanka today as Australia will meet the Islanders in Dubai.

It will be the second game of the tournament for both teams, and both the teams have won their first match.

Warner is still carrying his lean patch from the IPL in T20 World Cup also as he scored 0 and one in the warm-up matches and went out for 14 against South Africa in the first match of this competition.

Wade believes a good knock from Warner is just around the corner.

“It’s been spoken a lot about going into this tour about Davey especially. We know he’ll come good. I’ve played long enough with him now that he’s been under pressure plenty of times in his career, comes out, has a big score.

“So, whether it’s this game or whether it’s a few games down the track, those two (Warner and Aaron Finch) will definitely pile on some runs for us. We’re sure of that,” Wade said in the pre-match press conference on Wednesday.

Sri Lanka came out as the top team from the qualifying phase and played a clinical match against Bangladesh.

During their tour of Bangladesh, Australia struggled against spin bowling, and Wade knows that Sri Lanka will be heavily dependent on their spin attack.

“They’ve got a great mix. They will come at us with a lot of spin, but they’ve got some quicks as well, some pace, some real pace.

They’ll hit us upfront with a couple of those, I think, and a few overs of spin in the first six. Then from the six through, you might see a little bit more. But, yeah, they’ll probably start the innings and close out the innings, their quicks,” said Wade.

Micky Arthur, who was Australia’s coach but lost his job due to ‘homeworkgate’, is now the coach of Sri Lanka.

“We’re playing good cricket. We’re very dangerous. The players are very clear on what their roles are, and we’re confident we can beat anybody on our day,” he said in the pre-match press conference.

Sri Lanka will be getting mystery spinner Maheesh Theeksana back into their squad, who was ruled out against Bangladesh due to a side strain.