David Warner to Use Heavier Bats to Deal With Indian Wickets

Explosive Australian batsman David Warner will use heavier bats when Australia tour India to play four Tests in February and March. The southpaw, who has already started preparing for the tour, will be doing this to counter the wickets in the sub-continent which offer spin and low bounce.

He has lowered the sweet spot of the bat which will also have a heavier blade to tackle the low bounce and sharp turn generated by Indian spinners such as Ravichandran Ashwin, reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.

The daily also reported that Australia captain Steve Smith will use the same bat he uses in Australia.

Warner's Gray-Nicolls Kaboom bat weighs 1.23 kgs in Australia but the one he plans to use in India will weigh around 1.28 kgs.

His form holds key to Australia's chances in India, where they were blanked 0-4 in their previous outing in 2013. Warner, too, would like to do better than what he managed in India four years ago, when he averaged 24.37 in four Tests.

The 30-year-old has years of experience of playing in India, be it for Australia or in the Indian Premier League (IPL) where he guided the Sunrisers Hyderabad to the 2016 title.

Warner has been in sublime form of late, having scored two hundreds in the recently concluded three-Test series against Pakistan. Prior to that, he had smashed back-to-back ODI hundreds against New Zealand.

Australia will play four Tests in India from February 23 to Match 29. The matches will be played at Pune, Bengaluru, Ranchi, Dharamsala.

(With PTI inputs)