Australia opener David Warner reacts on India captain Virat Kohli’s paternity leave

As astonishing as it may sound, Virat Kohli’s paternity leave has turned out to be one of the major topics of discussion ahead of the India vs Australia series. The Indian captain is set to fly back home after playing the first Test match in Adelaide to be with his wife Anushka Sharma for the birth of their first child. Australia opener David Warner was the latest to voice his opinion on the matter.

Like most of the former cricketers, and experts Warner too commended Kohli for choosing to stay by his wife’s side.

“Well done to him to go home and be by his partner’s side for his first child,” Warner said in a virtual press conference.

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Warner also had words of praise for India’s Test vice-captain Ajinkya Rahane and said he brings a calm and measured approach.

Asked how different the Test contest would be with Rahane expected to lead after Virat leaves, Warner said, “He’s calm and very measured in his approach. He’s got a very good cricket brain.

“...it’s like chalk and cheese with them two (Kolhi and Rahane) and as a player to try and engage him on the field, as we’re talking about engaging, and getting into that contest as players, it’s obviously lots to think about how to do that especially with Ajinkya as captain.

“The great thing from India’s perspective is that you’ve got three if not four very good players who could captain the team at any time. With him, he’ll bring a calm and measured approach with his nature.” Warner was seen playing aggressively at the back end of the IPL and he stressed that he won’t be changing his game.

“Yeah definitely. What do you want to see? 100 of 10 overs or something? (laughs). In the one-day stuff, I’ll still come out and play the way I normally do. There’s probably going to be no change to that,” he said.

“Here in Australia, it’s a bit different, in 50-over cricket, you can still play the normal way you do and I think I showed that last year, the way I played against Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

“I played pretty much the same way as I did during the backend of that IPL. I won’t be changing my game and will go out and tackle it the way I always do,” added Warner, who has 5,303 ODI runs.

(With agency inputs)