David Warner to come out of retirement for Border-Gavaskar Trophy?

David Warner is ready to come out of retirement if Australia need him for the blockbuster five-match Border-Gavaskar Trophy, starting on November 22 in Perth. The former opener played his last Test in January before announcing his retirement.

Once Warner retired, Australia pushed Steven Smith up the order to open alongside Usman Khawaja. The move didn’t quite work out as Smith could only manage 171 runs across eight innings at an average of 28.5. As a result, the team management has decided to bring Smith back at No.4 for the Test series against India.

Meanwhile, Warner has an outstanding record in Australia. The left-handed batter amassed 5,438 in 101 innings at an average of 57.85 and a strike rate of 72.8. “I’m always available, just got to pick up the phone,” Warner told Code Sports.

“I’m always dead serious. Honestly, if they really needed myself for this series, I’m more than happy to play the next Shield game and go out there and play.

“I did retire for the right reasons to finish the game, and I wanted to finish. But my hand is up if they desperately need someone. I’m not going to shy away from that.

“I’ve spoken to Torch (head coach Andrew McDonald) and his answer back to me was, ‘you retired’. I don’t think he wants to give me the pleasure of him saying, ‘can you come back?’”

India have won the last four Border-Gavaskar Trophy, including two in Australia. This will be the first five-match Test series between the two sides since 1991/92, and there’s no doubt that the quality of cricket will be top-notch. 

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