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Follow UsAfter scoring just 51 in his two previous Tests for the West Indies against England in 2012, Denesh Ramdin was criticised by Viv Richards for his low returns. Hence, when he scored an unbeaten 107 in the third Test at Edgbaston, Ramdin took out a plain white paper from his pocket that read, "YEH, VIV, TALK NAH."
It was David Warner's turn to do something similar in Perth.
Despite scoring over 8,000 runs, Warner walked into his final Test series with a point to prove. Lucky for him, it was at home and against his favourite opposition Pakistan. To put things into perspective, Warner has scored over 1,000 runs against Pakistan at home, averaging a staggering 144.44, which includes five tons and a fifty in eight innings.
He was severely criticised by his former teammate Mitchell Johnson, who questioned why an out-of-form player gets the right to decide his own farewell. Moreover, adding salt to Warner's wounds, Johnson also dug up the sandpaper-gate episode, further asking if a person who has been involved in one of Australia's biggest scandals deserves this opportunity.
Johnson is not totally wrong when it comes to his form. As Aakash Sivasubramaniam points out in this article, Warner has looked completely out of sorts in Tests since the beginning of 2020. Before the start of the Perth Test, Warner averaged just 31.8, and had two hundreds to his name in this period.
However, whether or not he deserves a place after sandpaper-gate has been a bone of contention with many and is completely subjective.
With a century in Perth, Warner silenced his critics (again) with a "Talk nah" moment of his own. His celebration said it all.
"It is my job to come out here and score runs and that was from the get-go to put pressure on the Pakistan bowlers. I got a couple of partnerships going, first with Uzzie [Usman Khawaja] and then with Smudge [Steven Smith]. It's just another Test match hundred for Australia and it is something that we try our best to do when we walk out there," Warner told Adam Gilchrist in an interview after the second session after getting to his 26th Test ton.
"It feels great. There are a lot of runs out there to be put on the board for the bowlers to bowl at. There is always going to be criticism, and you gotta take that and no better way to silence it than to put runs on the board."
Not just a century, Warner, who started the day as the seventh-highest run-getter, has ended it as his country's fifth-highest in the format. It was a typical Warner innings, who brought up his fifty off just 41 deliveries. In fact, he ended the first session with 72 off 61 deliveries to put Australia on top before Pakistan adjusted their length to keep him relatively quiet after that.
He had got a life when debutant Khurram Shahzad dropped an easy catch at mid-on, but in a true Warner fashion, he cashed in on it. It was certainly his day.
Warner has barely faltered against Pakistan at home. With potentially five more innings in the series to come, don't rule out Warner slamming a few more big ones. Regardless of Johnson's comments or what he did five years ago in Cape Town, he will go down as an all-time great in the format.
