Australian opener David Warner announces end date on Test career

Beckenham: Australia opener David Warner has put an end date on his long and prosperous Test career by declaring he plans to retire from Test cricket during the upcoming Australian summer.Warner is currently in England preparing for next week's ICC World Test Championship against India and is then likely to feature in the five-match Ashes series with England that immediately follows.

The ICC Men's Cricket World Cup in India at the end of the year is also on Warner’s agenda, but the 36-year-old has revealed he would like to finish his Test career following Australia's Test at his home ground in Sydney against Pakistan in January.

Warner announced the news to reporters prior to Australia training in Beckenham on Saturday, with the left-hander indicating he wants to complete his Test career after the Pakistan series and prior to the two-match series against the West Indies on home soil, the ICC reported.
"You've got to score runs. I've always said the (2024) T20 World Cup would probably be my final game," Warner said on Saturday.

"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," he said.

"If I can get through this (WTC final and ensuing Ashes campaign) and make the Pakistan seriesI will definitely finish up then," Warner said.Warner, who has scored 25 centuries for Australia from 103 Test matches, does not expect his mindset to change now that he has put an end date on his Test career.

"For me I have always played each game as if it is my last," Warner added."I enjoy being around the guys...being that ball of energy and bringing energy to the group," he
said."I will just keep working as hard as I can to get to there and it starts this Test match against India,"Warner said.

And while Warner is looking to finish his Test career early in 2024, he still wants to continue to play white-ball cricket for Australia up until next year's ICC Men's T20 World Cup in the West Indies and USA.

"I want to play that 2024 T20 World Cup," Warner said."It is something at the backend of my mind. but we have got a lot of cricket before that and then I think it stops from February," he said.

"For me then I get to play IPL and some of the other franchise leagues and then get into that rhythm to play (2024 T20 World Cup) which I think is in June," Warner said."There is a lot of cricket to be played and who knows, I might even go back and play Shield cricket (domestic cricket in Australia) for New South Wales," he said.

But it is the World Test Championship Final against India that is at the forefront of Warner’s mind and the dynamic opener believes he has been in good touch in the nets since arriving in England.Warner’s fellow opener Usman Khawaja has been keeping a close eye on his partner at the top of the order and is predicting plenty of runs from him at The Oval.

"I have seen him bat in the last couple of days and, I don’t want to jinx him, but he is looking good,” Khawaja said."This is probably the best I have seen him look in the nets for a while," he said.“That doesn’t always correlate to runs, but if we are any chance of Davey Warner scoring runs this could be it," Khawaja said."You never write off a great player, so I am expecting runs," he added.(UNI)