Australian Opener, David Warner is getting ready to play the final series of his long test career, as he hinted before the Ashes this year. David Warner always expressed that he wanted to end his test career in his home ground Sydney and he just might have got his wish come true as Australia is geared up for a 3-match test series against Pakistan with the third test scheduled in Sydney, which is likely to be the final test of one of the greatest openers of the modern era.
David Warner’s dip in the test format
David Warner should feel lucky that he is not dropped from the Australian test team until now. He has been in poor form with the bat throughout the previous WTC cycle and averages under 32 since the start of 2020 managing to cross the three figures only twice with one of them coming in early Jan 2020.
His form has been dipping and he is not getting any younger. And even with a lot of youngsters waiting on the sidelines, Australia still backed him to deliver which he couldn’t, and performed badly in the Ashes this year averaging under 30, and has faced some serious criticism. Sensing all of this he might have felt that this was the best time to hang up his boots and give way to others.
David Warner’s Spat with Mitchell Johnson
Mitchell Johnson has recently bashed the Australian Opener on his involvement in the ball-tampering scandal and also how a player who is in poor form gets to decide his farewell, writing for the Syndey Morning Herald. In his article, he went on to say that how could a person who has made Australian Cricket shameful be getting a hero’s farewell?
He wrote
“It’s been five years and David Warner has still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal”“Now the way he is going out is underpinned by more of the same arrogance and disrespect to our country.“As we prepare for David Warner’s farewell series, can somebody please tell me why?“Why a struggling Test opener gets to nominate his own retirement date. And why a player at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in Australian cricket history warrants a hero’s send-off?His past three years in Test cricket have been ordinary, with a batting average closer to what a tail-ender would be happy with.Does this really warrant a swansong, a last hurrah against Pakistan that was forecast a year in advance as if he was bigger than the game and the Australian cricket team?”