London, July 23 (IANS) Having perished against England off-spinner Moeen Ali three times in his four innings during the current Ashes Test cricket series, Australian opening batsman David Warner on Thursday conceded it might be time to throttle back on preconceived plans to belt the tweaker out of the attack at first sight.
Warner said the tactic to put pressure on the spinner — denying him a chance to settle into a rhythm, putting pressure on his captain to remove him from the attack and, therefore, upping the workload on the seamers — had been a valid plan against Moeen’s predecessor Graeme Swann in the previous series.
“When we talk about Graeme Swann, fantastic bowler. I think the difference with Swanny was he was very consistent and always in the same areas. It was hard for you to score as a batsman, so you had to try and change the patterns,” Warner was quoted as saying by Cricket Australia (CA) website.
“With Moeen, I don’t think we really have to go as hard against him. No disrespect to Moeen, but you will get that bad ball whereas Swanny was relentless and you never really got that bad ball, especially as a left-hander,” the left-hander added.
England won the first Test at Cardiff but Australia bounced back to win the second Test at the Lord’s Cricket Ground. The five-match series is level at 1-1 at present. The third Test begins in Birmingham at the Edgbaston Cricket Ground on July 29.
“The other day (at Lord’s), coming out probably too hard and too aggressive was probably silly on my behalf. It was a brain snap but my plan was to go after him,” the 28-year-old, who has scored 3,421 runs in 40 Tests, said.
“I always say I will go down the way I want to go down, and that’s what happened but when I look back at it cost me a fair few runs.”