Nottingham: David Warner said he felt “just so grateful” to be playing for Australia after his run-laden return continued with a World Cup hundred against Bangladesh.
Warner’s international career came to a juddering halt when he was given a 12-month ban for his part in a ball-tampering scandal during a Test against South Africa in Cape Town last year.
At that stage, there was widespread speculation that Warner — widely regarded as the instigator of an event that saw Cameron Bancroft apply sandpaper to the ball — might never play for Australia again.
But having completed a year-long ban, the 32-year-old Warner has been in superb form for the reigning champions at the World Cup.
Feeling fresher
Having acknowledged it had been a “dark year for Australian cricket”, Warner was asked if there had been any personal benefits to his enforced break. “I feel a lot fresher. You don’t get a year off, you hardly get a couple weeks off (in international cricket). You just let your mind be at ease. And to have time at home as well with my family was awesome and I really enjoyed that,” added Warner, whose wife is expecting the couple’s third child in England.
“(But) that was obviously a dark year for Australian cricket. And we’ve just got to keep winning for our country, doing the best we can.”
Warner’s 16th one-day international century saw him equal Australia great Adam Gilchrist’s tally of hundreds in this format.
“I’m just so grateful for being able to have the opportunity to play for Australia and to be in the same sentence as Adam Gilchrist is fantastic and overwhelming,” he said.
“He was a bit more of a dasher than what I am at the top of the order. But for me, it’s just about going out there and giving my best, to be honest. That’s all I want to be remembered for, is someone who gives 110 per cent when I go out on the field,” Warner said.
