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David Warner believes the Australia Test team needs to be clear on its top order ahead of the Ashes later this year. In an exclusive interview for CricBlog, the former Australia opener said the middle order consisting of Steve Smith, Travis Head and Alex Carey is a strength, but setting a platform is important to keep England’s attack in the field for as long as possible.

Warner also spoke of how he came to join London Spirit ahead of The Hundred, as well as his experience playing franchise cricket around the world, specifying one key area of improvement. He also touched on the Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy between England and India, praising the bowlers for their performances on flat pitches.

David Warner interview: Former Australia opener shares thoughts on Ashes plus state of franchise cricket

Catch the audio plus transcript of our interview with David Warner below. Here are the key topics:

• Joining London Spirit and playing at Lord’s
• One area of improvement in franchise cricket around the world
• Australia’s top order Ashes conundrum
• Can Bazball work in Australia?
• Stuart Broad joining the Channel 7 commentary team for the Ashes
• Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy

Hundred discussion

Q: So here we are, we’re sitting on the benches just outside the pavilion at Lord’s. What a picture, excited to call this place home?

David Warner: Oh look, it’s a postcard isn’t it? It’s amazing; it’s had some changes over the years and look we’re absolutely spoiled and blessed to play at venues like this.

I’m excited to get back out there and it’s a great place to play cricket.

Q: So when did you arrive? You still sort of batting jet lag or have you kind of got over that?

David Warner: No, I got here two days ago. I’ve been in America, so I sort of stayed on that time when I got home and yeah, round of golf yesterday. So now I’m pumped and ready to go.

Q: Let’s talk about the London Spirit. First of all, have you had a chance to meet up with your teammates?

David Warner: Yeah, I have. I’ve seen a few of them around at the moment. We’re just doing some content capture now. So looking forward to getting out in the training park and having a good chat and sort of trying to work out as a batsman how people sort of
get off strike and talk to the guys.

And that’s one thing in franchise cricket. You’ve got to try and figure out fast.

Q: And obviously we’re here at Lord’s. You’ve had lots of games here, lots of tussles with England in the past. The last time you played it, quite a memorable occasion. Is it going to be weird to call, you know, the MCC members your supporters? Is that kind of a slightly strange scenario for you?

David Warner: I had a stint here with Middlesex and I sort of had them on my side and I think, you know, it’d be rude not of them to sort of try and cheer me on a little bit!

You know, let that Aussie negativity pass by for the next sort of 30 to 35 days.

Q: And just talk about being drafted by the Spirit in the 1st place. Was it always going to be a case of you wanting to join them? I know, you know, your good mates, Kane Williamson, Justin Langer as well, of course, as head coach. Was it always going to be the Spirit for you?

David Warner: Yeah, it was. I had an opportunity to play with Southern Brave a couple of years back. There were conversations there and it’s probably one team that I think, I sort of had to want to try and go back to, just purely because they gave me an opportunity first. But when this opportunity came up, I wasn’t going to say no, purely on the venue.

And then obviously the captain and the coach had a good conversation with them. And yeah, I wasn’t going to hesitate.

Q: it’s quite an interesting year, I guess, for the tournament in general. Lots of new ownership coming in for some of the teams, including the Spirit. I don’t know if you’ve kind of digested some of those changes. Does that bleed into the dressing room in terms of, well, next year could be very different, for example, compared to this year?

David Warner: I think, you know, when there’s always change at the top, it’s an unknown, but I think at the end of the day, that doesn’t really have anything to do with us. Our job is to go out there and play cricket and put some entertainment on the board
for all the people that come out and watch. And I think that’s all we need to concentrate on.

How franchise cricket could be improved around the world

Q: Just kind of zooming out a little bit in terms of your kind of wider experiences on the franchise circuit, I guess, you know, since your international retirement, you’ve pretty much been doing the circuit over about the last 12 months. How’s that experience just been for you in general?

David Warner: I’ve really enjoyed it. I think what happens is, is that you come up against a lot of different bowlers, not ones that you’ve played against for the last 10 years. So, you know, you’re always trying to figure out what and how to score, how to score, where to score.

But in general, coming in and trying to be part of an environment and still be yourself. You’ve got different guys in the changing that you’ve obviously been a part of or not. You’re introducing yourself all the time, which is great. You’re meeting new people and I think it’s fantastic.

At the end of the day, we’re here to do a job and we’ve got to try and gel as well as we can together in a short amount of time to try and lift the trophy.

Q: You’ve played in a wide range of franchise tournaments, different teams. I guess, just thinking back to the Max 60, for example, in the Caribbean, I guess, do you as a player have to be a bit careful sometimes in terms of which tournaments you’re choosing to kind of play in?

David Warner: I try and pick probably three, max four. One, family, but two, like it’s sort of, to me, sometimes you want that sort of sense of relationship and you’re trying to build a team and you want to keep as many of the same players as possible.

It’s difficult if it’s forever changing. Is there two, three year contracts and you get the same bunch of guys together? I think that’s what needs to be looked at because you can’t have one guy playing this year and then playing for a different team next year. I just don’t think that’s right. So I think if they can knuckle that down across all franchises around the world, it’d be a good thing, I think. I think that’s probably the only thing that really needs to change from that.

Ashes discussion: Questions for both Australia and England

Q: Switching focus to the Ashes inevitably. I think everyone in England’s been talking about it since the start of the summer. It’s not too far off now. How do you see that contest going in general?

David Warner: I think in general you’ll see great cricket. I’ve just got this funny feeling that it’s not going to be close… the games itself. I think there’ll be a few big scores and some low totals. When I say low, I think in the hundreds.

There might be a moment… probably the Gabba test, I reckon, that pink ball. That might be closer. Purely just that pink ball. And one time we played there, Pakistan almost chased down 430, I think it was.

Because that wicket with that ball, unless it’s green, it gets flat and hard and that ball gets real soft. So we’re just gonna have to monitor that. But I think that might be the close game, if there is one.

Q: In the past, you’ve spoken about Bazball and how it probably won’t work… that sort of style of play in Australia necessarily?

I think what we’ve seen this summer in the series against India is a bit of a development, a bit of an evolution in the Bazball strategy, whereas, you know, you have seen England at times digging a bit to go on and make really big 600-plus scores as they did in the fourth test up in Manchester.

Just generally do you do you see them being successful? Playing that way or do you think it needs a further evolution?

David Warner: I think you can have success by doing it if you get on top of the bowlers definitely, but I think first and foremost they’re going to have to probably come out and do it straight away. I think if you allow Australia’s fast bowlers to dictate especially in Perth the first Test you know… could be a very short Test match.

I look back at last year, Australia-India, there were 17 wickets on day one and that was just pure genius bowling from both teams. No bad shots or anything but one thing I do know in Australia is it’s going to be very hard to come out and play cover drives on the up and you probably can ramp and that stuff there because the boundaries are short and straight.

But I know Australia will definitely come out and have third man in and deep backward point and they’ll have those people in play for that but I think you might see a fair bit of short-pitched bowling as well.

You’ll probably see those guys tucked around the corner with the bigger boundaries. So I think that’s one thing. I remember us doing it here at Lord’s when Stokes hit that 100. That’s the field that we set. It’s almost like the Wagner field. In Australia, you can do that because the boundaries are so big. I think they’re probably going to be the tactics that are used.

Q: Focusing in on Australia and how the team are performing, how they have been performing recently. Obviously lost the WTC final here a few months ago now. Really good tour of the Caribbean recently, but I’d say from the outside looking in, it feels like the Australian batting order for the first time in a little while feels a bit unsettled. Would that be your view?

David Warner: I think the challenge is there’s a few moving parts there. You’ve got Greeny [Cameron Green] who’s come in. He’s a very, very good player. Yet again, he hasn’t really been challenged with fast, fast bowling. And that’s always been sort of the question mark over him batting there. You know, you don’t have too many guys bowling over 140 for England at the moment, unless Woody and Joff both play.

I think, you know, Gus Atkinson is probably one of those guys that early on he can do some damage but if Australia keep asking him to come back and bowl spell after spell, you might see challenges that might bring like Ollie Robinson when he came out to Australia that last time [2021/22] as well.

Australia’s going to have to rely on Steve Smith to score some runs. You’ve got Usman Khawaja at the top of the order. Is Sam Konstas going to bat with him? If he does, how’s Sam going to bat? What style of play does he want?

And then the other question is, if they do have to make a decision to change it, do they bring Marnus Labuschagne in or someone like a Jason Sangha who scored runs at the moment?

But you’ve also got Travis Head who’s down at the bottom of the order and Alex Carey who’s been firing at the bat as well. So, look, I think there is question marks over that top order, but knowing Australia and their home conditions, if they get a sniff, they’ll put some serious runs on the board.

Q: You’ve been involved in so many tight contests yourself against England. Will you kind of miss taking part in it yourself?

David Warner: You always will miss that part of going out there and playing in those series, but I’m quite content with not having to walk out there and stand on my feet for four or five days, so that’s the best part about it.

Q: The very last question on The Ashes, I think it was announced yesterday that Stuart Broad is going to be on TV for Channel 7, I think it is over there. Are you looking forward to having a chat and a drink with him?

David Warner: Yeah, definitely. I think he’ll be fantastic. He’ll be a great addition to that Channel 7 commentary. He’s played in a lot of series. He knows what it’s like to bowl in Australia and he’ll give a great analysis on all of that. I’m sure he’ll do a great job like he has been doing over here.

Thoughts on the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy

Q: final couple of questions just on the Anderson Tendulkar Trophy series that’s ongoing, obviously the fifth test being played at the moment. I know you were saying you haven’t actually watched an awful lot of it, but are there any sort of specific performances that you’ve kind of been impressed with?

David Warner: I think the way that the Indian batting line-up has adapted and scored big hundreds, I think that’s great to see. I think what it has shown across both teams, the amount of hundreds they’re scoring, how flat the wickets have been as well. And when you’re not using 2018 Dukes, you can actually score runs here, and big runs.

But I think, all in all, I think the bowling attacks have been fantastic. They’ve all got the ball moving in the air, a few jagging back off the seam, but I think the bowling’s been relentless. But all in all, I think it’s been a great show of grit and determination by both teams with the bat.

Q: We’ve seen a bit of needle creeping into the series. There were a few kind of altercations here at Lord’s and then just yesterday [at The Oval] as well, a couple of send-offs by the Indian bowlers. I mean, you know, having played with it, well, against both teams, you know, do you recognise that kind of aggressive attitude from both teams or is this something kind of quite new, particularly maybe for the Indian side?

David Warner: Look, I think all the series I’ve played against India, there’s always been something. Whether or not it’s been blown out of proportion or not, there’s always something that happens there. I don’t know. I just think it’s something that they try and get into a contest with, especially over here. I’ve seen that before in England, watching some of the Test matches England play.

I think someone like Mohamed Siraj, he’s a fiery customer. I think as a batsman you try to get under his skin a little bit, but he’s an ultimate competitor. He’s a very good bowler, especially with his scrambled seam and he can swing the ball. He’s been going well.

All in all, I think every series has a little bit of argy-bargy, which is great, but you don’t want to be seeing anyone contacting any player or anything like that. That’s not on in the game.