Australia is focused on winning games in South Africa, says David Warner

Ahead of the T20I series against South Africa, Australia top-order batsman David Warner said the team's focus is to try and win as many games as possible.

"For us, our focus is moving forward and trying to get the wins on the board and send a message to everyone that the World Cup is in our backyard and we want to be a team to be beaten," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Warner as saying.

Australia has not played a T20 international since November 2019 and this is the side's first tour back to South Africa since the ball-tampering scandal in 2018.

In 2018, Warner, Steve Smith, and Cameron Bancroft were involved in ball-tampering in the Cape Town Test and as a result, the trio was suspended by Cricket Australia for one year.

"It's one-day cricket and Twenty20 cricket, and you don't really have much time over the short period of time to get underneath each other's skin or anything like that," Warner said.

"It's been incredible how much support we've had from people in the public. I just played golf and they went over and above to make us feel more welcome. It's actually a great feeling," he added.

Warner scored 128*, 15, and 3 in the last three-match ODI series against India in January. He also won the Allan Border Medal in the 2020 Australian Cricket Awards. He secured his third (2016, 2017, 2019) Allan Border Medal.

The 33-year-old dominated the ICC World Cup with 647 runs including a highest score of 166 at an average of 71.88, including three centuries.

He then rebounded from a challenging Ashes series to dominate at home in the T20I series against Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the Test series against Pakistan - which included his memorable innings of 335 not out in Adelaide - and the Test series against New Zealand.

South Africa will take on Australia in three T20Is and as many ODIs. The first T20I will be played at Wanderers Stadium later in the day.