After making a’shush’ gesture towards his former teammate Mitchell Johnson after he scored a century in the first Test against Pakistan at Perth Stadium, David Warner said Johnson is free to express his thoughts and can celebrate anyway he pleases.
On a pitch that had something in it for the bowlers, Warner scored his 26th Test century and ended with 164, but no other Australian managed to cross the fifty mark in their opening day total of 346 for 5.
Prior to the Test match, Warner was the topic of the town after Johnson criticized him in a newspaper essay. Warner responded forcefully to the criticism and then revealed his gesture without holding anything.
“You observed its nature. After the play, Warner remarked, “It was a nice little quiet shush.”
“It’s just that I don’t mind if someone wants to write tales about me and tries to use headlines or obtain headlines. It’s simply a matter of having to go out and accomplish what needs to be done. I’m also free to celebrate whatever I like.”
After competing with Johnson in a World Cup and Ashes victory together, Warner was questioned more about if he would make an effort to patch up their damaged friendship. However, in his daily column in the West Australian, former Australia coach Justin Langer stated that Johnson ought to have been “praised in public and criticised in private.” This was mentioned in the opening line of the article.
Warner declared, “Mitch is entitled to his opinion.” “He used to be a player. You observed Justin Langer’s remarks. He asserted his right to it. You are free to review and refer to Justin Langer’s remarks once more, so whatever.”
Warner scored his third century in a Test match since January 2020, after a 16-inning run without scoring three figures since his double-century against South Africa in the previous year. During those sixteen innings, he had only two half-centuries and an average of just 22.81.
However, Warner maintains that no technical adjustments had anything to do with his incredible run of form in the ODI World Cup or his comeback to form in Perth during the Test match. He argued, however, that it was also the time when things were quieting down behind the scenes after the turmoil of his captaincy ban appeal with Cricket Australia the previous summer.
“There’s been a lot of stuff off the field that’s not really distracted me from a personal point of view,” Warner stated. “Last year, we dealt with a lot of issues related to CA and the leadership, and I was having a really difficult time managing everything off the field.
“As a team, we’ve had an amazing and productive 12 months this year. Even though we’re all really happy with our accomplishments, we still have work to do this summer. From where I sit in my career, I believe it’s doing really well. Honestly, I haven’t had many worries. People will say things, but you just have to move on and score runs in the field. I did that today, but I know a lot of other guys would like to continue, and as a team, we had a few starts. However, I believe we’re in a strong position with that [pitch].
“I think where we finished today is probably around par minus probably another wicket”
