David Warner says Australia cricket team following Steve Smith’s leadership skills

Steve Smith’s shoulder injury ahead of the T20I series dealt a major blow to Australia. Despite his absence and with the team staring at yet another series defeat on their Indian journey, it is his omnipresence that inspires the current Australian cricket team.

Stand-in captain David Warner failed to guide his team in the first T20I in Ranchi and ahead of the second match in Barsapara, the explosive opener said he was taking inspiration from the way Smith led the side.

“It’s about following on from what Steve’s values are and what we do to respect him. I try and follow those same key messages to the guys to ensure that when we’re on the field we’re doing our best, making sure we’re committed. That’s all I can do to the best of my ability and obviously it’s up to the players to follow directions and leads,” he said.

Warner added that captaincy is a tough job and everyone’s help was needed to bring up a good show.

“We’ve all got minds of our own. When you’re out there and you’re not captain you don’t have the pressure on yourself to keep thinking all the time. The ideas that everyone else brings out to the table, you say that to the captain, you give him ideas and that’s what we do to help each other out, because it is a tough job when you’re out there,” he said.

David Warner has said Australian cricket team has to back themselves despite suffering plenty of batting collapses on the current tour. (BCCI)

Batting collapse

The Australian team so far hasn’t been able to sort out the issues that have been troubling them since start of the tour. What’s hurting them most is the tendency to lose quick wickets in the middle overs, especially to Indian spinners.

Warner said that thinking too much about preventing a collapse may lead to another collapse. “We’ve just got to keep playing the game that we know. You can’t worry that a collapse is going to happen. No one’s worried about that at all. We’ve just got to keep going out there and keep backing ourselves 100 per cent. We know that when we go well we do very, very well,” he said. “At the end of the day no one means to get out.”

Challenging series

Warner added that the way India are playing, and that too at their home, the task is even more challenging.

“We try and win every game possible. Just getting a victory over here is always challenging, it’s going to be tough, you have to play to the best of your ability. If you give India a sniff on home soil or even away, any team, they’re going to pounce. You have to be on top of your game to beat an opposition in their country. We’ve got a lot to play for,” he commented.

Tough schedule

After the current tour, Australian team is going to play in the Sheffield Shield before turning up for the all-important Ashes against England in the last week of November.

With absolutely no rest after such a hard tour, Warner agreed that the schedule was hard on players but added that they had little choice.

“It’s a very tough schedule as it is for every single country. You’ve basically got to pick and choose when to rest your big players, when you’re playing a long series, and then you’ve got Test matches coming up. Or you’re playing a Test match like we did and there was a Twenty20 on. It’s quite hard as a player to understand why, but these are things that are put in place years in advance. That’s why I play the game and I’m not sitting there trying to administer everything,” he said.