Australian opening batsman David Warner has hinted that he might call it a day in T20Is in order to focus on Test and ODI cricket for the remainder of his career.
Warner was awarded the Allan Border Medal during the Australian Cricket Awards event on Sunday for the best player across all three formats and has admitted he is looking to readjust his cricketing schedule in order to have a longer career as a professional.
‘I have to look at the schedule. It is going to be very difficult to play all three forms, and good luck to all the guys who want to keep playing that. You talk to guys like AB de Villiers and Virender Sehwag, these guys who’ve done it for a long time – it does become challenging,’ said Warner.
With back-to-back T20 World Cups set to take place in October (in Australia) and next year (in India), the 33-year-old Warner feels the overload could become a problem for him and his family.
‘Having three young kids and my wife at home all the time, the constant travelling becomes very difficult. If it was to come down to one format, it would probably be the international T20s.’
The new structures to international cricket and the introduction of the Test Championship have brought change to the traditional cricket tours and schedules since last year. According to Warner it has given him time to think about where he could contribute the most to Australian Cricket.
READ: SA vs England – T20 history.
‘Generally we play a Test series and go into an ODI series. We went to India and then generally you have a ODI series at home, back-to-back games and then you go away. So, it was a bit different this year. I was able to have that opportunity to have that break which I’m grateful for,’ Warner said.
The left-handed batsman also doesn’t play in Australia’s local Big Bash League, which in the last few years have become a rather long competition with 61 matches taking place over an almost two-month period.
‘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 T20Is, 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.
‘A lot of the guys try to go back and play as much as they can. Sometimes, you look at the finals as an example, they come back and play the final, you’re taking someone’s spot as well, which is always tough as a player, you don’t want to come back and just take someone’s spot for one game,’ said Warner.
Warner will, however, be part of Australia’s ODI and T20I squads that will tour South Africa from the end of the month in what will be him and Steve Smith’s first return to the country following the sandpaper scandal that rocked world cricket in 2018.
The series will start on the 21 February with three T20Is, followed by three ODIs from 29 February onwards.
Photo: Scott Barbour/Getty Images
