Glenn Maxwell explains David Warner's slow-going in WC

Australian batsman Glenn Maxwell feels the moving ball and the bowler-friendly conditions could be the reason behind David Warner's slow going in the ongoing World Cup.

Usually one of the most aggressive openers in world cricket with a strike rate of 96.55 before serving his one-year ban, Warner has not been able to score at his usual pace in the ongoing World Cup. He stands sixth on the list of scorers, with two half centuries in the opening three games.

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson and Warner are the only two players with a strike rate of less than 80 among the 20 who have scored 100 or more runs in the tournament so far.

Against India on Sunday, the swashbuckling left-handed opener struggled for most of the time and managed to score 56 of 84 balls (strike rate of 66.67). In fact, his half century was the slowest of his ODI career.

More uncharacteristic was the amount of dot balls he played. Warner played out 50 dots in Australia's unsuccessful chase of 353, including 14 in a row at one point.

Against Afghanistan also, he consumed 114 balls to score unbeaten 89. The speed of his innings didn't matter much in that match as Australia won the game quite comfortably.

"It might be the conditions, it might be the ball," cricket.com.au quoted Maxwell as saying.

"It seems to be doing a little bit more than I expected over here. We all expected big 500 scores and balls to be pinging away all over the place.

"But the ball has started swinging in the 5-10 over mark rather than straight away and then stopping," he added.

The left-handed opener has come into the World Cup on back of an imperious run in the IPL 2019 edition where he scored 692 runs in 12 matches he played for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

--IANS

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