Image Credit- ICC
David Warner, who declared his retirement from international cricket, said he would be open to participating in the ODI Champions Trophy next year, but he will not be given any consideration.
Warner reiterated his demand for the Champions Trophy in a recent social media post after the T20 World Cup concluded, which signalled the end of his Australian career, just as he did in January when he said that the ODI World Cup of last year would be the last one in which he would play in the format. However, Australia’s national selector George Bailey stated that Warner was regarded as fully retired and that one should respect his history as an all-format player.
“Our understanding is that David is retired, and [he] should be commended on what has been an incredible career across all three formats,” Bailey said. “Certainly, our planning is that he won’t be there in Pakistan.
“You never know when Bull’s joking…think he’s just stirring the pot a bit. He’s had a wonderful career, can’t celebrate it enough, and think as time goes by, his legacy of what he has done for Australia and we reflect back on that, the legend of a player is only going to continue to grow. But as far as this team goes and the journey to transition to some different players, in his case across all three formats, it’s going to be exciting.”
Bailey clarified, though, that despite their attention being directed towards the future, the selectors were still keeping an eye on other white-ball cricket players. This was especially true for the T20I squad that was called up for the tours of Scotland and England, which included Cooper Connolly and Jake Fraser-McGurk, after the Super Eight exit in the West Indies.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who’s not there that we’ve put a line through permanently besides David,” Bailey said. “This is the way we are going with this squad. If opportunities arise or there are gaps at different points there’s nothing to say that Wadey might not come back, but certainly, at this point, we are excited about giving Josh [Inglis] a run.
“The next T20 World Cup is 2026, so I imagine there may be some more changes than what we are seeing in this squad but specifically to those guys [Starc and Maxwell], no we haven’t had any conversations about where they think their T20 journey may finish.
“Certainly for Glenn and Mitch, the Champions Trophy is very much on the horizon, [and is a] very important tournament for those guys. And Starcy in particular, I think he’s going to have a huge summer. Clearly, some of the decisions made around this series are around prioritising and getting guys right for what will be a really big summer. As far as ending players, seeing where guys might finish up, we haven’t had those conversations.”