T20 World Cup: David Warner’s IPL demotion as mystique to Australia’s final squad make-up

A week out from Australia naming its T20 World Cup squad, David Warner’s dream of a perfect end to his farewell tour has hit a Ricky Ponting-sized hurdle.

Such has been the elongated cross-format David Warner farewell tour that it would be easy enough for the casual Australian cricket fan to believe he had played his final match for the national side.

That after withstanding months of calls for his Test omission, he had ridden off into the sunset having won the one-day World Cup in India then been as productive as any Australian batter during his swansong Test series against Pakistan over the summer.

But we should have known there’d be some sort of twist with Warner. There invariably is.

The final chapter of arguably Australia’s greatest three-format cricketer was injected with a soap opera turn on Wednesday night when Warner, 37, was dropped from the XI of his Indian Premier League side, the Delhi Capitals.

That would be enough of a story in isolation, but the tale is all the juicier for the fact the call came on the watch of Australian cricket legend Ricky Ponting, under the pump as coach of the Capitals.

There have been murmurings that Warner remains affected by injury, having missed a game earlier in the tournament with a finger concern. However his club made no public mention of any issue before the game, and in any case his IPL form had been patchy at best.

But wait, there’s more. The decision was made in the week before Australia’s squad for June’s Twenty20 World Cup is due to be released, and Warner is being kept out of the side by a younger model, the upstart Jake Fraser-McGurk, more than 15 years Warner’s junior and also vying for a spot in the squad.

David Warner wants to have his international farewell in this year’s T20 World Cup. Picture: Getty

And there is actually less competition for spots at the Capitals than might otherwise be the case, given Mitch Marsh has been all but ruled out of the rest of the IPL after returning to Australia to nurse a hamstring ailment.

It seemed unthinkable after Warner’s outstanding form across February’s T20 series against the West Indies and New Zealand that he would not make the plane to the Carribbean.

And realistically, even Ponting’s vote of diminishing confidence in the veteran lefty is unlikely to be enough to keep Warner out of the 15-man squad for a tournament at which Australia is seeking to secure an unprecedented triple crown after last year’s Test World Championship and ODI successes.

But with Travis Head having scaled intergalactic heights at the top of the order for Sunrisers Hyderabad during the tournament, given Marsh has been given the unofficial nod as captain and with Fraser-McGurk shooting into contention, there is suddenly a bit to think about around Warner’s spot in Australia’s best T20 side.

David Warner plays a shot for the Delhi Capitals. Picture: AFP

The returns had been decreasing across the tournament for Warner, who is averaging 23.85 from seven matches. Perhaps more of a concern though is his strike rate of 135.77. It feels odd to be highlighting that as an issue, but it is the fourth lowest clip of the IPL’s top 30 runscorers this season.

A combination small boundaries, flat pitches and the impact sub rule – which effectively allows each side an extra specialist batter – has forced a recalibration of what is a winning IPL score.

Not that totals at the World Cup should be quite as stratospheric. The sub rule is not used in internationals, while decks in the West Indies are typically slower harder to score on than those used for T20 in India.

Travis Head’s explosive form at the top of the order has created some headaches. Picture: AFP

Yet in any case, it is one final hurdle for Warner, written off umpteen times over the years. The good news for him is that his journey has been so winding that this is actually the plot repeating itself.

In 2021, Warner was sacked as captain and then dropped from the Sunrisers after a woeful IPL campaign during an IPL season split by a Covid-19 interruption.

The back end of that IPL served as a precursor to the 2021 T20 World Cup. How did Warner go in that event? He was player of the tournament and Australia won the whole damn thing.

With that reversal in the memory bank, it would be a shock or a selection panel to discard Warner now, having stuck fat for so long.

Originally published as T20 World Cup: David Warner’s IPL demotion as mystique to Australia’s final squad make-up