David Warner has been selected in Australia's squad for World Test Championship final vs India and first two Ashes Tests; opener short of form in recent Test innings and could find place under threat. Watch every ball of the Ashes live on Sky Sports from Friday June 16
Monday 5 June 2023 15:29, UK
Australia batsman David Warner has spoken of his desire to retire from all forms of international cricket next year.
The 36-year-old hopes to bow out from Test cricket on home soil in Sydney in January against Pakistan, and sees the T20 World Cup next summer as a natural end point for his international career.
Warner, who is expected to open the batting for Australia in what will be his farewell Ashes later this month, will bring the curtain down on a storied international career to spend more time with his family but hopes he will first be selected for the 2024 T20 World Cup, scheduled to be played in the West Indies and USA.
"You've got to score runs. I've always said the World Cup will be my final game," Warner said.
"I think I probably owe it to myself and my family, if I can score runs here and continue to play back in Australia, I can definitely say I won't be playing that West Indies series.
"If I get through this and I can make the Pakistan series, I will definitely finish up then."
When available, Warner has been a fixture at the top of the Australian order since his debut in 2011 but his place in the side for the World Test Championship final and Ashes series has been called into question after a run of poor form.
Warner was born in a hospital a few hundred metres from the SCG and raised in the nearby eastern suburbs of the city, where he still lives.
Signing off his Test career there, would provide a storybook ending to a long career.
Warner will need to show some form during the Ashes otherwise his Sydney swansong at the start of next year might be a far-fetched proposition.
Apart from a defiant 200 against South Africa in December, Warner has struggled for runs in recent Tests, making a total of 26 in three innings in the recent tour of India before returning home injured.
He had a dire series in England during the last Ashes tour, averaging 9.50, the worst ever by an opener to play 10 innings in a series, with paceman Stuart Broad taking his wicket seven times. He had a better time of it in 2015, scoring 418 runs at an average of 46.44.
Australia coach Andrew McDonald last month backed Warner to deliver at the top of the order in next week's WTC final against India at the Oval and the Ashes series starting at Edgbaston on Friday June 16.
Warner himself believes that other factors played into his struggles on English soil during his last Ashes as a tourist.
"It's part and parcel of the game. If people are bowling well, and I look back and look at the dismissals and look at both opening pairs, it was a difficult time to bat," he said.
"I looked at the 2018 Dukes ball compared to the 2023 ball, it's completely different as well. That was a higher pronounced seam back then. They wanted to use those balls as well, they had that choice and it was hard to tackle. Then once you got in, the ball still moved around for the 80 overs, so it was difficult.
"There was nothing to do with any of my technique or anything like that. If I'm critical of myself, I was probably going away from my gameplan which is looking to score. I was listening to some other voices, which you know, from my perspective, probably didn't suit my game. So I gave that a chance.
"I felt like I batted my best at Leeds and that was the way that I normally played so, if you can put the bowlers off their line and length and put pressure on them. That's how you score runs. That's when I'm at my best."
Looking ahead to the action getting under way in the First Test at Edgbaston, on the day England confirmed their squad for the opening two Tests, Warner believes England's bowling attack could certainly present some new questions for Australia.
Matthew Potts, Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue are among the young talent the Aussies will have to try and suss out, having not faced them before in English conditions. He also believes variety of pace could make a difference.
"They've got different speeds," said Warner. "(Mark) Wood is there as well, how are they going to use him? The big miss for them is obviously Jofra (Archer).
"For us, it's just worrying about the new guys that we haven't faced over here. [We] haven't faced Ollie Robinson in these conditions, Potts is obviously bowling well and Tongue, as well, he's a debutant. These guys we haven't faced before, so they're guys that we will have to analyse and see what lengths they're bowling - identical to the other lengths that the other guys have bowled in the past and have had success?
"As a batsman, you've got to try and work out and identify how to put them off their lengths in England. And by the looks of it for the next sort of 12, or 13 days, the sun's supposed to come out.
"So I'm looking forward to batting in the sun for once!"
Watch every match from the men's and women's Ashes live on Sky Sports. You can also follow videos and over-by-over text commentary across Sky Sports' digital platforms. Live coverage of the first Test is live from June 16-20 on Sky Sports Cricket.
