The Australian opener took a rather circuitous route to crickets longest form, in that he played T20 for his country before playing a single first-class game. Warner recalls a conversation with Sehwag during which the Indian batsman, much to his astonishment, said,you'll be a much better Test cricketer than you are a T20player. Sehwag went on to explain, "All the fielders are around the bat. If the ball is there in your zone, you're still going to hit it. You're going to have ample opportunities to score runs.You've always got to respect the good ball, but you've got to punish the ball you always punish." The Australian took Sehwag's words to heart, and was able to make his Test debut approximately two years later.
If Sehwag gave him self-belief, Warner credits Chanderpaul with instilling in him the art of spending long periods in the middle. After expressing his amazement at the Guyanese batsman spending six hours with the bowling machine while they were together at Durham, Chanderpaul responded, if you're going to bat for six hours in a game, you might as well practice it. Warner's appreciation of the value of spending time at the crease grew, though he steered clear of Chanderpaul's style of batting.
It was Sehwag who was more Warner's spiritual kin. Both are similar in outlook, and like Sehwag before him, Warner has had to endure much skepticism due to his forthrightness as a Test batsman. Purists scoff at the thought of Test batsmen, and openers in particular, going hell for leather from their first moment in the middle. The doubters (and I was one) should now all have been silenced by the sheer weight of his run scoring, but many were convinced in the beginning that he couldn't last.
