Steve O’Keefe was the major talking point of day two of the first Test between India and Australia at Pune. After being criticized by Australian legend Shane Warne following his selection on day one for being a “safe option”, he proved the spin wizard wrong by picking up his career-best Test figures and also being at the center of a Twitter banter between former England captain Michael Vaughan and Shane Warne.
Extra Cover: Who Said What: World reacts to Steve O’Keefe's exceptional performance
Soon after the team was announced, Warne wasn’t happy with O’Keefe’s selection as he said he wasn’t a “huge danger with big-turning deliveries”. He said: “O’Keefe is the safe option because you know he’s not going to bowl much rubbish.”
Even before the left-arm spinner came on to bowl on day two, Warne wasn’t happy with the decision to bring him and give him confidence. He told Star Sports: “When you first start a session you want to set the tone and put pressure on the Indian batsmen and, without trying to be too harsh on Steve O’Keefe, this is the weakest of the Australian bowlers.”
It didn’t take long for the 32-year-old who didn't pick up a wicket in his earlier spell to shut up Shane Warne as he then picked up three wickets in the space of five balls and got rid of the set batsmen in KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane in the space of two balls.
He eventually finished with figures of 6/35 which included six wickets in 25 balls in which he gave away just five runs. Following his incredible spell, the left-arm spinner was also the subject of a twitter banter between two legendary English and Australian players, which saw Warne calling Vaughan out and the latter replying with a plea to the Australian selectors to let Shane Warne pick the squad for the Ashes.
Following O’Keefe’s spell, Warne quickly changed his stance from earlier in the day and then called out Vaughan.
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