David Warner’s knock provides platform for opener to kick on at T20 World Cup | Geoff Lemon

One innings does not a definitive return to form make but life certainly looks a lot rosier for the Australia opener after a brisk 65 runs from 42 balls

In the ficklest format that is 20-over cricket, no one is ever really gone, and no one is ever really back. The best scoring streak can be interrupted by a miscue, the longest struggle can give way to a day when a player makes good contact with a few big swings. Still, those running Australia’s team would have watched with some relief as David Warner ran up 65 runs from 42 balls in Dubai on Thursday night, the central contribution to chasing Sri Lanka’s 154 and giving Australia two wins from two at the T20 World Cup. For a few days, Warner can enjoy the feeling that perhaps he is back indeed.

In a weird couple of years for almost everyone on the planet, it has been a weird couple of cricketing years for Warner. For almost a decade he had played relentlessly: across formats from his T20 debut in 2009 until his 12-month suspension in March 2018, nobody played more matches or scored more runs across for Australia. In the same span he played all nine editions of the Indian Premier League, a couple in the Big Bash, Sheffield Shield fixtures in eight seasons, four 50-over state cups, five Australia A matches, two Champions Leagues, and a couple of T20 tournaments in England and New Zealand.

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