The 2019 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) witnessed the return to competitive cricket for Australia’s premier opener David Warner, as he was earlier serving his ban period.
It was the hit opening pair of Warner and Englishman Jonny Bairstow which grabbed headlines for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) last year.
Both the swashbucklers added a whopping tally of 791 runs in the limited games they featured in together.
The unlikely Aussie-English duo did well in the competition for SRH as they stitched four hundred plus partnerships including the mammoth 185 run stand against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) where the two notched up tons.
“It was really bizarre because me and Jonny, we’ve never played with each other or against each other. We didn’t really know each other off the field. But as soon as we had the first net session and the first hit out, it was almost like we knew each other’s game so well,” Warner told Harsha Bhogle during his conversation on Cricbuzz.
“The best thing about our combination, that I knew deep down, was how fast we are between wickets,” added Warner.
In the match against RCB, Bairstow brought up his maiden IPL ton during a maverick knock of 114 which came off just 56 deliveries. While Warner smashed a 55-ball unbeaten ton.
Looking back, Warner found joy in frustrating RCB captain Virat Kohli by rotating the strike with singles and doubles.
“I look back at the RCB game, I think (there were) 21 or 22 twos (during the partnership). It was frustrating the crap out of Virat. When Virat went out to field at midwicket, we were running twos to him. The thing is, when you’ve got that instinct anyone can do that. When you’re batting so well with someone, and gel well, you can turn ones into twos quite easily,” concluded Warner.
The southpaw also touched upon the paradigm shift in relationships between international players with the rise of franchise cricket.
