David Warner is sick of hearing about being a Twenty20 specialist and hopes his outstanding form in the short game doesn't stop his dreams of winning a baggy green. Warner's strong starts with Shane Watson are one of the reasons Australia are undefeated heading into the Super Eight match against Sri Lanka in Barbados on Sunday.
Warner has 114 runs in 71 balls during the first three games, including an onslaught of seven sixes in his 72 against India. "A lot of the guys in the team take the mickey out of me about being a Twenty20 specialist," he said in The Sunday Telegraph. "Your ambition as a kid is to play Test cricket and wear the baggy green. That's always been my goal."
The performance against India earned him the Man-of-the-Match prize and he is becoming a big target for opposition teams. Sri Lanka have lost Muttiah Muralitharan to a groin injury but the side has fast and slow threats in Lasith Malinga and Ajantha Mendis that Warner will have to overcome.
Warner said he hadn't spoken with the selectors about his prospects in the other forms of the game. "It's probably better that those guys don't come up to me and tell me what to do because it could play with my head," he said. "I know what I have to do."
He played with Virender Sehwag, another brutal opener, with Delhi in the IPL and asked for tips. "I said: 'What game do you think would suit me?' He said: 'This [Twenty20] is your game, but Test cricket will be the key. All the field is up, opening the batting there you can play your shots.'
"The hardest thing about Twenty20 cricket for me is that you have to keep looking at the scoreboard. There are times when you have to pull it in a little bit. But once you're going and the adrenalin is going, you're all pumped up and you want to keep scoring runs."