David Warner is convinced that he will maintain his big-hitting prowess irrespective of the new bat adjustment rules.  

The ICC announced on Tuesday that the new laws will be implemented in all international matches starting from 28th September.

The new rules included bat restriction, where umpires will be equipped with bat gauges to ensure that the thickness of the edges are not more than 40mm and the overall depth is not more than 67mm.

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Warner revealed that he abided by the new restrictions on Australia’s Qantas Tour of Bangladesh in August-September and that it won’t affect his big-hitting ability.

‘It’s basically the same bats that I started my career with,’ the left-hander told the media in India. ‘I took them [his old bats] down to my bat-maker and said: “we’ve got to go back to what we started with”.

‘It obviously didn’t affect me then so I don’t think it’s going to affect me now. I think everyone has been misled in a way where they think the big bats clear the fence easier than what the old bats used to. We were hitting sixes with the bats five or six years ago and we’re still hitting sixes today.’

Bat manufacturers Grey-Nicolls and Kookaburra both confirmed that they’ve used gauges to ensure their willow don’t breach the new restrictions.

‘We were prepared and ready for the laws,’ Kookaburra head of communications Shannon Gill told cricket.com.au. ‘It doesn’t affect that many of our elite players, a lot of them were not using bats that size anyway.

‘It won’t have a massive effect on the way we work with our players. We’ve made up gauges that our bat-makers use in what they do. Once the laws were announced, we eased them into it and prepared them for it by bringing the size down inside the acceptable levels some time ago.’

Grey-Nicolls bat-maker Stuart Kranzbuhler agreed with Warner’s sentiments but did confirm that bats created previously did exceed the current regulations.

‘The regulations they gave are basically what a standard cleft or piece of willow is anyway, so it’s not going to affect the majority of our players,’ Kranzbuhler told cricket.com.au.

‘It’s obviously affected players like Warner and Lynn. Warner used them [oversized bats] in all forms but he likes a heavier bat, he still likes them around 2″11, 2″12 [about 1.21 – 1.24 kgs].

‘It’s probably more a mental thing for the players, they might have thought they could be more aggressive with a bigger bat, but it’s a pretty minimal change with how much power they’re going to have.’

Photo: Ryan Pierse/Cricket Australia/Getty Images