"Just said to him not to walk out into the ball" - Warner's advice to Finch

David Warner revealed the text messages he sent his opening partner Aaron Finch during the Indian Premier League 2022. Playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, Finch could only manage 86 runs in five innings at an average of 17.20. Prior to last night’s T20I against Sri Lanka, the Australian white-ball skipper was averaging 19.90 in 21 innings across both limited-overs formats. However, he returned back to his best on Tuesday (June 7), smashing 61* off 40 to propel his team to a 10-wicket win over Sri Lanka.

"I just kept in touch with him, we always do. We always support each other as much as we can. If we see little things, we always try help each other out by dropping him a message," Warner, who himself smoked 70* off 44 and put on an opening partnership of 134 with Finch, told reporters after the match.

"I just said to him not to walk out into the ball, let the ball actually do its work in the air. And if they want to bowl nice and full and you stay still and keep that leg stump line, you're going to get full contact with the ball, and if it swings late, it's going to go down leg.

"He was probably moving a little too much, he was walking straight into the line of the ball and was still moving at the time of the delivery, and when you're a batter you don't want to really do that unless you're actually physically charging. For Finchy, it's about keeping it simple and not moving too much around the crease.

"We saw that tonight, he played some nice shots, he timed the ball well and when he's nice and still, that's when he's at his best. He looked to hit everything down the ground (in the first T20), when the ball was in his area, he hit his slog sweeps which he is very good at … and you could just see the energy was a lot different with him running between wickets and he was up and about, and it was great to see."

Warner has an outstanding record against Sri Lanka in the shortest format of the game. In 14 T20Is, the left-handed opener has smacked 582 runs at an average of 64.67 and a strike rate of 140.9. "I think I've just been fortunate enough to have that upper edge," he said.

"I just try and start as well as I can, hit the ball into the gaps and run hard. It's great to be on top of it but I know at some stage it's going to ebb and flow so while I'm going so well, I've got to try and keep the momentum going for the entire series."