Ashes 2023: David Warner sets Test retirement date

David Warner has announced when he will retire from Test cricket as Australia prepares for the World Test Championship final.

David Warner has dropped a bombshell on the eve of the World Test Championship final by declaring he is planning an SCG Test swan song.

Warner revealed on Saturday night (Australian time) that should he be selected for the home Test series against Pakistan, that would be his farewell in the national red-ball team.

“I’ve always said the (50-over) World Cup would probably be my final game. But I probably owe it to myself and my family,” he said.

“You’ve got to score runs. If I can score runs here and continue to play back in Australia, I can definitely say I won’t be playing the West Indies series.

David Warner will call time on his Test career after the Australian summer.

“So I think if I get through this and I can make the Pakistan series, I’ll definitely finish up then.

“I’ve always played every game pretty much as it’s my last. That’s how I’ve always played, that’s my style of cricket.

“I’ll just keep working as hard as I can to get to the SCG Test.”

Warner’s position at the top of the order has come under intense scrutiny in the past 12 months and, as he prepares to do battle with English foe Stuart Broad, he revealed the end of his career was close.

Tension between the camps ramped up when Broad, who is currently fifth on the all-time list of Test wicket-takers on 581, wrote off England’s 4-0 defeat in the last Ashes series, as “void” and not high-level performance courtesy of quarantine restrictions.

Warner and Broad, both 36, have been a fixture of Ashes cricket for 10 years. In 13 Tests in England, Warner has a top score of 85 and an average of just 26.0, well shy of his career mark of 45.6.

Warner was dismissed by Broad seven times in 10 innings in the 2019 Ashes in a head-to-head domination rarely seen at Test level. Warner only once passed 11 in an innings.

“I haven’t really worked on my strategy yet. I need to deal with the India Test team, so Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur are probably on my mind first,” Warner said.

“Then I’ll switch on and worry about Stuart Broad, if they select him first, that this.

“I can’t wait to get out there.”

Warner’s position in the Test team has been under a cloud after being down on form for the majority of the last three years and with the Australians trialling Travis Head in the opener role during his absence in India.

Warner also missed much of Australia’s recent tour of India through injury – dropping out of the most recent tour with a fractured elbow – but has won a recall for the World Test Championship final and first two Ashes Tests.

He revealed he was hit on the same arm again, during training in Beckenham on Thursday.

“It got me right on the same point, but from a different angle, it went numb, I had to get it strapped, it’s fine now, just a little bit sore. Lucky it didn’t hit me on top (of the elbow,” he said.

Warner said he was in “superb” form.

“I remember in 2013, I was in the nets popping up left, right and centre and I was popping up in the media, that I was getting bowled by Mitchell Starc and all the other guys and wasn’t performing in the nets. I’m probably one of the worst netters going around.

“But here I’ve actually been superb in terms of my feet have been moving. My energy has been moving.

“I’ve always said that I’ve come off the IPL and that’s held me in good stead for this preparation. I’m still looking to score.”

Warner added: “I’ll want to play that 2024 World Cup, it’s something that is on the back end of my mind, but we’ve got a lot of cricket before that and then I think it stops from February.

“For me, then I have to play obviously IPL some of the other franchise leagues and then get into that rhythm to play in June so there will be a bit of cricket around to play.

“Who knows that might go back and play Sheffield Shield games for New South Wales.”