Warner contemplates T20I retirement to prolong Test, ODI career

Australia batsman David Warner on Monday took home his third Allan Border Medal at the Cricket Australia Awards. The southpaw made a phenomenal comeback to the national side across all formats after a year-long ban for his involvement in the ball-tampering saga. The batsman has now hinted towards taking early retirement from T20I cricket to prolong his career in the longer formats.

 

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Where do I start!! It was an honour to receive my third AB medal and my first t20 player of the year award which is voted by my peers, media and umpires. I’m extremely humbled by this and overwhelmed with joy. It’s been a rollercoaster of highs and lows, but I’ve managed to get through this by having great support by my side. My family is paramount and means the world to me. Without the strength and resilience of my wife I don’t know how I would have managed but we soldiered on and got on with the process. My three beautiful girls I love you dearly and I will keep being the best dad and role model that I be can for you. I love you @candywarner1 #girldad #mygirls

A post shared by David Warner (@davidwarner31) on Feb 10, 2020 at 10:00pm PST

Hits Top Gear in World Cup

Warner made an impressive return to white-ball cricket, recording three half-centuries and three hundreds in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. With 647 runs in 10 matches, he finished as the tournament’s second-highest run-scorer, a solitary run behind India’s Rohit Sharma (648). Subsequently, the Aussie had a below-par Ashes outing but soon bounced back to form in Australia’s home season. In his first one-day of 2020, Warner struck a belligerent century against India at Rajkot.

Now, the 33-year-old is contemplating quitting T20 international cricket after the consecutive T20 World Cups in 2020 (Australia) and 2021 (India).

“I don’t have a BBL team; I took a break during this period, and that was about my body and my mind, making sure I’m getting ready for the next series that comes up.”

“If you look at T20 internationals, we’ve got back-to-back World Cups as well, that’s probably a format that could be one I’d probably drop in a few years,” Warner said.

Warner gets Emotional

It was a teary-eyed moment for the destructive opener as he collected the prestigious medal for the third time in his international career. Last year, Cricket Australia did not invite the banned trio of Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft to the awards ceremony.

“I had no doubt that I had the capability of being back here again. It was obviously a lot of hard work and commitment to be able to put my hand back up for selection for one, and go away and just do what I know best and that’s to try and score as many runs as I can in any competition I was playing in,” he added.

“There was obviously a lot of work behind the scenes to reintegrate the three of us and I really appreciate the way that unfolded and the way we were reintegrated back into the team and into the fold, and that was by having net sessions as well at the Test matches, keeping our sharpness up against quality bowling, and I’m extremely grateful for that.”

Ready for African challenge

Nearly two years after the Newlands incident, Australia are set to tour South Africa for three T20Is and three ODIs, starting February 21. Warner, who was booed in England last year, said his ability to handle the situation in a non-retaliating way will help him in Protea land as well.

“I knew what I was walking into in England and I know exactly what I’m walking into in South Africa,” Warner said. “You just look at the recent series against England; it doesn’t matter where you go in the world, you’re probably going to cop something of some sort. You’ve got to try and get that out of your head and not let that affect you. I’ve well and truly learned my lessons from last time. It’s going to be great to go back over there, and I’m just really excited to get out there against South Africa and hopefully come home with a win.”