Warner to seek long-time idol Warne's help to become full-fledged Test spinner

Melbourne, Apr 9(ANI): Australian opening batsman David Warner intends seeking his long-time idol Shane Warne's help to transform himself into a fully fledged Test leg-spinner.

"From growing up as a kid I've modelled myself, through his run-up and everything. If you want to be the best you might as well model the best," Fox Sports quoted Warner, as saying.

"Everything that he's done and everything that I've tried to look at, how he gets his wickets, how he goes about shuffling the batsman across the crease ... that's how a bowler would think. But for me to get the opportunity to bowl and just turn into a normal leg-spinner is amazing," he added.

His statement came after he was recently advised by bowling guru Craig McDermott and head coach Mickey Arthur that Australia could need his bowling skills.

Warner claimed the first two wickets of his burgeoning cricket career in the first Test against the West Indies.

"It got to me pretty fast and he hit it pretty hard. Lucky I put my hands out. Ian (Gould), the umpire, said to me that if I didn't catch it, it would have hit him because he didn't see it," Warner said, referring to his first Test wicket.

Warner could have become the 15th bowler in history and only the third Australian player behind Arthur Coningham (1894) and present teammate Nathan Lyon (2011) to claim a wicket with his first ball in Test cricket had James Pattinson not dropped the catch off his delivery. (ANI)