Australia legend Ricky Ponting believes David Warner has left himself open to having his Test career ended by selectors, saying the veteran opener should have retired in January.
Warner has been ruled out of the rest of Australia’s Border-Gavaskar campaign in India after breaking an elbow during the second Test in Delhi.
The 36-year-old was unable to overcome his poor record in Asia during the first two Tests, making just 26 runs over three innings in Nagpur and Delhi.
Warner entered the Boxing Day Test – his 100th match – under a mountain of pressure but hit a stunning 200 at the MCG to book his spot on the tour of India.
Ponting, who coaches Warner at the Delhi Capitals in the Indian Premier League, drew comparisons between the end of his own glittering career and the left-hander’s red-ball decline.
“For him to finish the way he deserves to finish, the obvious thing for me was to pull the pin after Sydney,” Ponting told RSN this week.
“He got 200 in Melbourne, played his 100th Test, played the next Test in Sydney, his home ground and maybe finish there.
“The last thing he deserved is to be away on a tour and get in to the middle of a series and get dropped and his career is over. That would be an awful way for him to finish.
“It’s happened to all of us, it happened to me.
“When you get to a certain age and it looks like your form is dropping off slightly, then the knives are sharpened and it doesn’t take long.
“He’s a driven little man, a pretty stubborn little bugger, so we’ll see how he goes.”
After arriving in Australia from India last week, Warner vowed to continue playing international white-ball cricket even if selectors opted to axe him for the Ashes.
“I’ve always said I’m playing to 2024, if the selectors feel that I’m not worthy of my spot, then so be it, and I can push on to the white-ball stuff,” Warner told reporters at Sydney Airport.
When asked if Warner was still in Australia’s plans for the five-Test tour of England in June, selector Tony Dodemaide declined to commit to picking the aggressive opener.
“We’ll address the Ashes planning (at a later time) but we are committed to picking the best fit and available players for Test series, particularly something as big as the Ashes,” Dodemaide said last week.
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