SYDENY: Former Australian great David Warner is all set to play in the Champions Trophy 2025 to be held in Pakistan between February and March next year.
Warner, 37, retired from ODI cricket after Australia lost their record sixth FIFA World Cup in the final in Ahmedabad on 19 November 2023.
After Australia was officially ruled out of the T20 World Cup 2024, the legendary opener announced that he is quitting all formats of international cricket to focus only on T20 leagues.
“Chapter closed!! It was an incredible experience playing at the highest level for such a long time. Australia was my team. Most of my career was at international level. It was an honor to do it. 100+ games in all formats is my highlight ,” Warner wrote on Instagram. “I’ll be playing franchise cricket for a while and I’m also open to playing for Australia for the Champions Trophy if selected,” Warner wrote on Instagram.
Warner is the second highest run-scorer among Australian ODI openers, having scored 6,888 runs at an impressive average of 45.31 and a strike rate of 97. He has also scored 22 centuries and 33 fifties. He is behind only Adam Gilchrist who scored 9,176 runs at 36.55 and 98, 16 hundreds, 53 fifties).
Meanwhile, in the T20Is, Warner scored 3,277 runs in 110 innings with the help of 128 fifties at a strike-rate of 142.47.
Australia’s ODI and Test captain, Pat Cummins, responded to Warner’s wish to return to international cricket one last time.
“I think it’s probably time to give a couple of others [in ODIs], but knowing he’s still going to be playing cricket, it might be more of an emergency kind of glass breaker. But you know, David’s going to be scoring them somewhere in the world, so you never know , that this is [the end],” Cummins said.
