David Warner has once again insisted he is determined to clean up his act after yet another incident left him foul of the Australian Cricket authorities. The 26-year-old was hit with a one-match suspended ban by Cricket NSW earlier this week after he went to the races rather than playing for his club side.
The opening batsman blamed a misunderstanding in communication for his absence but that didn’t stop Warner from receiving a third sanction from cricket officials this year. And with the return Ashes series coming up, Warner’s place in the Aussies’ squad that will face England has to now be in doubt. Australia are currently 13/8 with Paddy Power to win the upcoming Ashes series.
After being fined following a Twitter row with a journalist in May, the batsman was then involved in that pub bust-up with England opener Joe Root ahead of the Aussies Champions Trophy campaign, resulting in him being left out of the ODI tournament and then the early stages of the Ashes. That said, he is 9/2 to be the top Australian series runscorer.
But despite “doing a Warner” for the third time this year, the batsman has made it clear he is ready to change his ways and focus on his cricket during an important summer for Australia.
“The old saying is that things come in threes and I think I’ve had my turn now,” Warner said.
“There’s always going to be ups and downs in your life but it’s probably been a pretty bad six months for myself, but now it’s about moving forward and getting on with cricket and trying to be a mature adult.”
But as ever with Warner, there will be a large percentage of Aussie fans just waiting for him to make the headlines again for the wrong reasons – which is a huge shame when taking into consideration just how important the left-hander could be to the host’s chances of reclaiming the Ashes urn.