David Warner: The genius we need to talk more about

We need to talk a lot more about David Warner's hands. And the genius they possess.

He plays a pull shot, and the assumption is that it was simply a short ball that needed to be put away. Look closer and you realise that often it's his ability to pick the length earlier than most that sets up the shot. But then it's the way his hands generate both the power and the direction that make the shot so effective.

He plays the slog sweep and the assumption is that the ball was in "the slot" for him to do so. Look closer and you realise it's often the way he picks the length and gets into position by dropping to one knee that makes it look like it's in the "slot" before those amazingly dexterous hands of his once again take over and create the power and direction that always seems to ensure the gap is found or the boundary is cleared.

He plays the square drive, and the assumption is that the ball was always full enough to be driven through the cover or point region. Look closer and you realise it's once more his incredibly manoeuvrable hands that allow him to reach out in front of him and manipulate the length of the ball before producing the power and placement required to penetrate the off-side field.

It's very much the same when you see him square-cut deliveries to the right of the backward point fielder, even to deliveries that are at times just outside his off-stump.

On Friday (October 20), Warner paddle-swept a ball from Haris Rauf onto the roof of the Chinnaswamy Stadium. He isn't the first batter to come close to clearing the iconic stadium in Bengaluru. In fact, even Marsh would hit the roof on one occasion during their mammoth opening partnership. But nobody had ever hit a ball nearly 100 meters while playing a paddle sweep, that too off a fast bowler. This was simply the genius of David Warner. And we need to speak a lot more about it.

Once again, this was pure manipulation of length, line and well, of the bowler himself. On the face of it, it might seem like an impulsive shot. And maybe there was a bit of that here. But it was more Warner recognising that the ball was in "his arc" as he would describe later and managing to lower himself into a position, where he's seemingly falling over towards his off-stump, before letting those hands of his airlift the ball towards the Bengaluru sky. This was Warner showing off his genius. Pure genius.

And though the numbers would suggest that Warner's epic effort of 163 off 124 balls was just another classic knock, look closer and you'd realise that this was, if anything, a celebration of David Warner the ODI batter. It was a masterclass and an exhibition of what makes him one of the greatest to have ever played the game. Go watch the innings in detail again, and you'll see each one of the shots described above being executed in all their glory.

Yet somehow you don't talk of the 37-year-old in those hyperbolic tones when it comes to his batting in 50-over cricket. Even if he does have the numbers to back him up. Only 16 openers in history have scored more runs than Warner. Of those, only 4 of them have done so at a better average than the Aussie left-hander. And he's by far played the least number of games, which is without doubt the reason for his numbers not being as voluminous as some of his peers, say the likes of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in particular.

Just because he isn't as freakishly skilled as Steve Smith or as overtly in love with his batting as Marnus Labuschagne, Warner often gets tagged with more cliched tropes. Like him being a powerful striker of a ball or a very aggressive operator at the top of the order or a feisty boundary-hitter. Rarely do you hear, however, the breakdown of his special and unique talents that make him more pleasurable to watch than most that have played in his era.

But that's because we just haven't always understood or fathomed the genius of Warner either. And why he's not spoken of in context of the greatest to have ever played this format as often as he needs to be.

It's not that Warner doesn't talk about his batting openly. There's if anything a candidness to it that you don't always find in batters of renown. But it's probably more his nearly hyperactive presence in the middle that doesn't allow you to soak in his genius. Warner after all is a batter in perpetual motion in the middle, forever on the move regardless of whether he's hit a boundary or when he's scampering across for a run or two or three or at times even four.

Which also brings us to how we should talk a lot more David Warner's legs too. Here he is at 37, into his 14th year as an ODI batter, and he's still among the quickest across the pitch. It's not just the speed though. There is never a point while Warner is batting, where he's not looking for a run. There he was on Friday, deep into his innings, now past his 150 and having been in the middle for over three hours, still looking for an overthrow even as his new batting partner had his back turned to him.

There's also this great chemistry between his hands and his legs that allow Warner to be as busy as he loves being at the crease. It's not only when he's hitting boundaries that you see his hands being at work. They come through even more so when he's trying to pierce holes in the field set for him to rotate the strike. And then his equally dextrous legs complete the task.

This is the reason he's been able to produce big scores of 150+ as consistently as he has over the years. The fact that he's amassed the three highest individual scores for Australia across three 50-over World Cups spanning eight-and-a-half years, going back to 2015, tells you everything you need to know about his durability, his passion and his ability to stay at the peak of his powers.

"For me, I pride myself on my fitness. I keep taking the mickey out of a lot of guys here. I'm almost 37, running around like a little bulldog in the outfield. At the end of the day, it comes down to attitude," Warner had said more with regards to his fielding after the Sri Lanka match.

There at the Ekana Stadium in Lucknow, his hands and legs had manufactured a couple of brilliant catches in the outfield to literally bring Australia back into the World Cup after a stodgy start to the tournament.

"You get 10 pieces of laundry. Dive around, throw yourself around and try and take those match-winning catches that can turn the game," is how Warner had described his match-winning catches against Sri Lanka.

It's maybe this indelible and inimitable pride and passion he's displayed while playing cricket for his country that has overshadowed the unprecedented talent that he possesses with bat in hand. More reason why we should talk more about his hands, his legs and the overall genius that is David Warner.