Calcutta/Bangalore: Australian opener David Warner will not back down from playing his shots against off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin despite the risks involved in such an approach.
Ashwin has already dismissed Warner three out of four times in the ongoing Test series, which is locked 1-1 at present.
"Ashwin has got me now on nine occasions, so credit to him for that," Warner told the Australian media on Saturday.
Ashwin bowled Warner in the first innings of the second Test with a sharp away turner from over the wicket before trapping him plumb in front of the stumps in the second essay. "In the last Test, I was contemplating switch hits.
"I tried to play a reverse sweep. The only concern for me is the variable bounce as that's always the challenging thing," the left-hander said.
Getting the switch hit into play is one way of disturbing Ashwin's rhythm. But on Indian wickets, that ploy is fraught with danger, feels Warner. "If you miss that and switch hit, you can still be given out leg-before. But if you reverse, you can't.
"You have to be careful, therefore... I know in my mind if I play a shot against Ashwin, he will change something. I know if he tries something, I'm thinking in the back of my mind as to how I am going to score.
"He's a fantastic bowler, he's got a lot of wickets in his backyard and I have to respond to that. It's simple... I must find out a way to combat him," Warner emphasised.
Ashwin has put the opposition batsmen, including Warner, under severe pressure and the constant chatter from close-in fielders has only added fuel to the fire. Warner, however, claimed that he has stopped responding to sledging.
"I don't respond... Not anymore, to sledging," said Warner. "I can only speak on behalf of our Australian cricket team and the way we approach the game and approach the off-field incidents. I'd be pretty upset if one of our players or staff did that.
"But at the end of the day, there's going to be a lot of niggles here and there around certain things and I think just a few people got out of hand."
Warner was also asked to respond to Pujara's post-match comments in a video posted by the BCCI. Pujara alongside skipper Virat Kohli was not shy of having a word or two with the incoming batsmen.
"It's just a rule of the cricketing world that you keep everything on the field, but that's up to them. From our point of view, we'll never do that," said Warner.
