Former India cricketer turned veteran commentator Aakash Chopra has called David Warner the soul of Australia’s T20I squad. He again shared that they lose half their strength when Warner is not at his best of form.

However, Warner hit a 30-ball 49 during Australia’s 177-run chase in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2021 against Pakistan. Along with him, Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade played quickfire cameos and helped the team book a berth in the final against New Zealand. While reflecting on this in a video shared on his YouTube channel, Aakash Chopra praised David Warner.

He elaborated: “If the Australian T20 team is a body, David Warner is its soul. If he doesn’t play, the team becomes half. But when he plays, we say form is temporary, David Warner is permanent and he is class when we talk about this format.”

Aakash Chopra observed: “He has been very very good. He played an amazing counter-attacking knock. He was just keeping Australia in the game. There was one moment though which broke my heart. The ball slipped out of Hafeez’s hands, who hits like that, I have never seen anyone do that even in Ranji Trophy but he hit a six.”

However, David Warner smashed a six into the stands off a Hafeez delivery that bounced twice after it slipped out of the bowler. And, Aakash Chopra stated that Shadab Khan had almost helped his side’s win with a four-wicket haul.

“After that Shadab took four wickets – it was game, set, match and all of that, in which Maxwell, Smith and Warner also got out. What else do you want? But after that Wade was there with Stoinis. The game was in the balance there as well because Wade was going at run-a-ball, Stoinis was hitting but Wade was keeping Pakistan in the game. And that is when the Hasan Ali over which also had a no-ball. After that, a Haris Rauf over and then there was a catch dropped by Hasan Ali, the heart was broken, it was not a white-colored ball but probably the trophy. Then three sixes, it was incredible hitting,” Aakash Chopra concluded.