In the fourth episode of Prime Video’s documentary titled ‘The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team’ (2023), opening batter David Warner is asked to describe his experience of Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka 2016 and all he has to say in a discouraging tone is “f**king shit”.
Advertisement
To be fair to Warner, Sri Lanka, in spite of all its natural beauty, can be a daunting country to visit for touring batters especially the ones who are not very well-versed with the challenge of facing spinners on sub-continent pitches. Although Warner has excelled in white-ball formats in Asia and even has a Test century in Pakistan, his Test record in both India and Sri Lanka is dismal, to say the least.
Hence, it wasn’t a surprise when Warner uttered the aforementioned words for a tour where his 168 runs across six innings had come at an average of 27.16 including a solitary half-century. Australia getting whitewashed 0-3 under the then captain Steven Smith didn’t do any good with respect to the memories of that tour for the players.
This is what a raging David Warner said after getting out to Ramesh Mendis in Galle Test
Currently struggling with form and fitness on a tour of India, Warner hadn’t done anything significant in a two-match Test series in Sri Lanka last year either. Warner, who has scored all of 641 runs at an average of 22.89 across 29 Test innings in India and Sri Lanka, was in a state of rage when dismissed in the first innings of the first Test of Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka 2022 in Galle.
“I f**king keep missing those,” Warner yells after returning to the pavilion on Day 1. Having scored five fours at a strike rate of 104.16 during his 24-ball stay in the middle, Warner didn’t take a lot of time in getting his eye in but had to walk back to the dressing room after a Ramesh Mendis delivery hit him on his back pad only to find him wanting in front of the stumps.
“Can’t f**king open the f**king thing,” Warner says in The Test: A New Era for Australia’s Team as he is unable to open a water bottle in anger. All of this, however, happens after he throws around his cricket equipment and slamms a door of the refrigerator to clearly be unhappy with his performance.
A session, where the Aussies scored 98/3 in 25 overs, witness similar nervous scenes right after the dismissal of each of the three batters. “You fr**king sh*t,” Australia batter Marnus Labuschagne said to himself to put into words his dismissal just over six overs after Warner was dismissed.
Smith, who was Pat Cummins’ vice-captain on the tour, followed Warner and Labuschagne after his shocking participation in a terrible mix-up (with opener Usman Khawaja) leading to a run-out. “F**king run. F**king smart, getting run out on a f**king wicket like that. That’s good. Give away your wicket. Why not? F**k me,” Smith shouted upon returning to the dressing room at the Galle International Stadium.
While neither of Labuschagne or Smith were required to bat in the second innings, Warner scored all the runs within four Mendis deliveries to chase down a 10-run target with 10 wickets in hand on Day 3 itself.
