Ashes 2013: David Warner embraces 'villain' status

Australia batsman David Warner said he had learned to embrace his role as pantomime villain during the third Ashes Test at Old Trafford.

Warner missed the first two Tests after being sent home from the tour for punching England's Joe Root.

But he made a fluent 41 in his side's second innings before being caught in the deep by Root as Australia closed day four on 172-7, a lead of 331.

"Out of all the people to hit it to, I hooked another to 'Rooty'," he said.

"It was quite comical. I also liked the trumpeter playing the Rocky theme song when I came out, I had a little chuckle to myself.

"I'm not well-liked at the moment and it's not every day you get booed onto the field. And I can't wait to read Twitter later.

"But you've got to embrace it. Obviously it was all my fault but I went away and learned my lesson. Somebody always gets picked out, this time it's me and I've got to keep my head down and focus on my task, which is scoring runs."

Having been dropped from the Ashes squad, left-hander Warner joined up with the Australia A tour to South Africa, where he scored 193 in Pretoria.

And Warner, who opened the batting in Australia's second innings, said fellow batsman Root welcomed him back at the start of his first innings on Friday.

"He said to me: 'It's been a long couple of months, hasn't it?'" said Warner.

"And I just turned round and gave him a little smile. I've got a long memory, so that's all right."

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