Australian cricketing great Adam Gilchrist believes David Warner needs to reassess his approach, after the ugly change room incident between the Aussie opener and Quinton De Kock.
CCTV footage obtained by Independent Media shows Warner and De Kock engaging in an aggressive verbal exchange, with numerous teammates needing to step in and stop proceedings.
Gilchrist reckons the incident, which isn’t the first time Warner has found himself in a heated situation with rivals, should make the 31-year-old change his attitude.
“There is no denying (Warner’s) capabilities with the bat in hand,” he told SEN Afternoons.
“It seems he came into cricket with his natural attacking, aggressive mindset, both with bat in hand and in the field.
“He used to pride himself as a guy who got into the verbal stoushes and was a leader of the aggressive mindset.
“He then went the other way and they called him the reverend, and he was very outright in saying I’ve put that away, it isn’t me anymore.
“It coincided with the time he got married, had kids and got a different perspective on life.
“It is extreme the opposite way. Now he has come back again, saying old Davie is back, his teammates are saying the reverend is gone and the bull is back.
“It is always a worry in any situation where someone is so extreme in one direction or another.
“The balance between intensity and being relaxed, David has to find somewhere in-between.
“He prides himself on being a leader of the team, he did very well in the T20’s as the captain, but what we have seen over the past 24 hours aren’t the images that you want your captain projecting.”
Gilchrist also expanded on why he thinks the entire situation is a bad look for Test cricket.
“As an outside observer, I think you would find that a little bit off-putting and a bad taste at times,” he said.
“The question may even come, over all these eras, Australian cricket teams have been at the top of pile.
“Generally they’re a very competitive, world class team.
“Some may say they don’t need to do that, why do you need to produce that sort of ugly look if you’re playing such good cricket.
“They’re not good images, and it is hard to comment specifically about this incident overnight unless you’re there and you know what sparked it.
“Some of the parts of the celebration of the run out of AB de Villiers, and then this incident, isn’t a very good look.”
Listen to Adam Gilchrist’s chat with Andy Maher on SEN Afternoons in the player below!