"He's Not Trying To Get..." - David Warner Opens Up On His Banter With Shaheen Afridi

The veteran Australia National Cricket Team opening batsman David Warner has opened up on his banter with the premier Pakistan National Cricket Team left-arm seamer Shaheen Afridi.

Warner is playing his farewell Test series against Pakistan National Cricket Team at home. He started off the series on a dominant note by smashing a terrific century at the Perth Stadium on Thursday, December 14.

Warner, who received heavy criticism in the lead-up to the series, played an aggressive brand of cricket against Pakistan. He reached his century off 125 balls. Warner slowed down after completing his century and was eventually dismissed by Aamer Jamal in the 75th over.

David Warner was back in the hut after scoring 164 runs off 211 balls. He batted with a strike rate of 77.12 and hit 16 fours and 4 sixes during his blistering innings.

Speaking during the post-match press conference, David Warner talked about his banter with Shaheen. He said that the Pakistan pacer doesn’t try to get under his skin and they just had a normal banter.

“It’s been a long few months for Shaheen as well, he’s bowled a lot in the World Cup. You’ve got to try to apply pressure to their senior bowler in the 1st Test match. The chit-chat is just normal stuff – there’s nothing. He’s not trying to get under my skin or anything, it’s just normal banter.”

The boys were laughing – David Warner on his outrageous ramp shot off Shaheen Afridi

Warner also talked about his outrageous ramp shot that he played off Shaheen’s delivery over fine leg in the opening session. The opener revealed that he thought the ball was of a shorter length.

“I actually thought it was shorter than it was until I saw the replay. The boys were laughing,” Warner said.

“Uzzy comes up to me and goes, ‘That is an unbelievable shot’. And I said, ‘What? It was a short ball mate, and I can ride it’. And he said, ‘That was not short, mate. That could have been a cover drive.’

“But for me, it is something where, if they are going to put fine leg square and you have boundaries like that and someone is bowling at 140 kms, you have to be brave.

“It is a scoring shot and nine times out of ten, they are bowling a nice length and on this wicket, it is hard to hit the stumps, and I just thought that with his angle and his pace, I could ride it. I just gave it a crack.”

At stumps on Day 1, the Australia National Cricket Team were at 346/5 in 84.0 overs with Mitchell Marsh (15) and Alex Carey (14) unbeaten in the middle.