Warner takes aim at 'Nice Guy' McCullum

Australia's new vice-captain David Warner has turned up the heat on New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum ahead of the summer's opening Test, accusing the Black Caps leader of double standards between his on-field values and his off-field opinions.

The day after Warner's Test skipper Steve Smith expressed his disappointment with views that McCullum aired in his column for the UK's Daily Mail earlier this year, Warner weighed in by suggesting his Black Caps' rival should restrict himself to watching the game rather than commenting on it in print.

Quick Single: Smith responds to McCullum's jibe

The willingness of Australia's two leaders to take aim at the visiting captain just days before the first Commonwealth Bank Test in Brisbane confirms that Smith will continue to lead a team prepared to "headbutt" the notional line that divides hard-nosed aggression from code of behaviour violations.

WATCH: Stokes given out obstructing the field

And it also indicates that the home side knows it needs to pull out all stops to beat a New Zealand outfit that has not lost a Test series – at home or abroad – in more than two years.

Smith's comments came in response to McCullum's newspaper column following the controversial 'handled the ball' decision against England's Ben Stokes during the recent ODI series in the UK, with the NZ captain labelling Smith 'immature' for not withdrawing his team's appeal for Stokes's wicket.

Quick Single: McCullum column takes aim at Smith

Warner had earlier been on the end of McCullum's pen when, after England batsman Joe Root scored a century in the first Ashes Test in Cardiff, the Black Caps skipper claimed the Australia opener "needs to show more respect".

McCullum specifically noted Warner's apparent unwillingness to applaud Root's century, and his (along with spinner Nathan Lyon's) insistence on disrupting Stokes's obsessive scraping of the crease when the England all-rounder was batting.

"He (Warner) might look back on his career and have a few regrets about the way he carries on," McCullum wrote.

"The danger is that people won't think about his cricket as much as they should."

Warner maintains that he did indeed applaud Root's milestone and that McCullum, who was not in Cardiff nor at the Swalec Stadium at the time, was unaware of that as his response had not been depicted on television or in newspaper photographs.

Pressed further on his response to McCullum strongly advocating for less on-field confrontation but then criticising opponents through his paid newspaper column, Warner stepped up his attack.

"I don't quite understand how a current cricket captain decides to play this brand of cricket on the field which is the Mr Nice Guys and then all of a sudden think he can comment on the way an Ashes series has panned out," Warner said during a round of media interviews at the Gabba today.

"Because one, he's never played in an Ashes series and two, he doesn't know what it's like to play in an Ashes series.

"It's what we do out there, we play against England, we play an Ashes series.

"He should actually just watch the game and try and work out what they have to do to try and beat us instead of commenting on it.

"That's something I've found a bit weird at the time. But at the end of the day he wanted to do that and obviously he got paid for it."

Warner shrugged off suggestions that the Australians were perhaps peeved that the Black Caps under McCullum are celebrated as a breath of fresh air in their refusal to engage in sledging and their propensity to play with a smile, while the Australians continued to cop criticism for their on-field demeanour.

"At the end of the day you're not playing for the spirit of cricket award are you?" he said.

"You're playing for a series and for us that's what our goal is, is to win the series.

"Our goal is to be number one in all formats (of cricket) and we're always going to fight for that.

"We're going to try our best and work as hard as we can to be number one in all formats but at the end of the day we try not to cross that line.

"A couple of times we've headbutted it, a couple of times we might have crossed it but we've got to try and win every game possible and that's what we try and do."

The Black Caps were lauded in the UK for the spirit in which they played their two-Test (drawn 1-1) campaign and subsequent ODI series (lost 3-2) against England prior to Australia's arrival for the Ashes, while the Australians were scrutinised for the way in which they got in some NZ players' faces in the ICC World Cup Final last March.

But Warner insists that very little was said in the heat of battle during the World Cup Final which Australia won comfortably, and that rather it was the animated, aggressive intent that he and his teammates showed after Mitchell Starc had demolished the NZ skipper's stumps in the opening over at the MCG.

Image Id: ~/media/31CB72E9EB5C4A8F82241E9C9B4581C9

Brendon McCullum is bowled for a duck by Mitchell Starc // Getty Images

"I think the heat of the battle when you're out there obviously the adrenalin is pumping and (after) a couple of the wickets I know the bowlers like to, they ooze and they feel they can actually be in your face a bit more and it probably looks a bit different on TV compared to when you're out there," Warner said.

"If I bowled 150km/h I'd probably get fined every game.

"The guys are still going to stay aggressive that's for sure, but I don't think much is going to be said anyway."

Much like their contrasting public perceptions, the rival teams opted for markedly different preparations two days prior to the opening session of the three-Test series at the Gabba on Thursday.

The Black Caps opted not to train at the Gabba nets today having done so for the previous three days, and they are expected to undertake a light 'top-up' training run at the ground tomorrow afternoon.

The Australians engaged in a lengthy fielding and nets session amid today's stifling 30-plus morning heat, with the only hiccup being pace bowler Mitchell Johnson's limited involvement.

Johnson, who did not bowl during Monday's training run at the Bupa National Cricket Centre in Brisbane, appeared disgruntled with his rhythm and run-up after several aborted attempts to bowl off his full run in the Gabba nets.

Eventually, the spearhead who turned 34 yesterday opted to depart the nets session and instead return to the NCC facility where he was able to bowl without the restriction imposed by the fenced-off training area at the Gabba.

"The (run ups available at the Gabba) nets aren't long enough for a few of us," Johnson's fellow fast bowler Mitchell Starc said today while confirming he was not able to operate from his full 22.8m run-up at training.

"That's why I came out to the middle, to bowl a few off my full run.

"There's a few places around the world that are a bit frustrating with their run-ups, but they're things we deal with and it will be fine come Thursday."