This might be a wicket where I can play like old me: Australia's David Warner ahead of 100th Test at MCG

Melbourne [Australia], December 24 : Australian veteran opener David Warner on Saturday vowed to play like his older self, but also said that the surface dictates the game.
Australia will take on South Africa in the second Test match on Monday. Australia leads the three-match series 1-0. The upcoming Test will be Warner's 100th match in the longer format. With two days ahead of the landmark Test and just 78 shy from 8,000 Test runs, Warner has vowed to play like his older self as he continues to hunt for his 25th century. He has not touched the three-figure mark in whites since January 2020.
"I know when I am at my best, I am taking the bowlers on. It goes well and it flows with the team and the guy at the other end. Now I have probably gone a bit more responsible and trying to put the team into a good position without playing a bit rash. If anything I can probably be a bit more aggressive and go back to the older me, take them on a little bit more. But I think that also is dictated from what wickets you are getting," ESPNCricinfo quoted Warner as saying.
"You do not want to have a dig at the curators, but the last two years our wickets have been green. If I go out there play a cover drive and nick one, you guys [the media] will have a feeding frenzy. But now I am in good positions and I am nicking off, that is the nature of the beast. This might be a wicket where I can go out and play like the old me. So you have to adapt to those conditions that is what I have been doing the last 18 months," he added.
Warner's strike rate over the last three years has been underwhelming, having dipped to 57.21 compared to his career rate of 71.18. In his last 15 Tests and 27 innings, he has averaged just 26.07 with only four fifties. His numbers get leaner in 2022, he has not even scored a half-century in his last 10 innings.
In 10 Tests this year, he has scored 371 runs at an average of 20.61, with only two half-centuries.
Warner claims that he has run out of luck rather than being out of form technically and from decision-making standpoint.
"You look at some of the chop-ons and I have been in great positions when I have been nicked off," Warner said. "So there is nothing you can actually do about that. That's what happens in the game of cricket, it ebbs and flows. People [were] writing me off in that one-day game here [against England] and I went out and scored a hundred on a pretty dicey wicket," asserted Warner.
"It is about making runs. You are never out of form. They are not the words that I use and they are definitely not used in our change rooms. It is about [being] out of runs. And for me, I have got those starts but I keep having a little bit of misfortune but at the end of the day it comes around and when it comes around it comes around fast," he added.
While celebrating his 100th Test this week, he has been reminded of his some of the great innings against South Africa, including three centuries against a world-class Proteas attack back in 2014.
While the current bowling attack of his opponents hopes that they have got better of the opener pyschologically, he has no fears, saying that he "wakes up everyday going into the nets facing the best attack in the world".
"I have faced guys that bowl 145 kph every training session. So it is not different for me. Am I scared going in those nets? 100 per cent I am scared. Going into the nets and facing those guys for the last decade has been a challenge in itself."
"But going out there and knowing that I have put numbers on the board against some of the great attacks that South Africa has produced, they stay with me when I go out there. You speak about Cape Town [2014], that was probably my best whole batting performance from the batting perspective and a lot of good things happened to me when I played against the South African attack. For me, it is about as I said, come out here with a positive mindset and hopefully I will keep replicating that," he added. .