David Warner, who returned to form with a double century in Australia’s thumping win over South Africa in the Boxing Day Test, has said he’s not done yet and has the “extra motivation” to do well in the highly-anticipated India series and the Ashes next year. Warner, who had said that Test cricket may be the first one to “fall off” in his international career, shrugged off a prolonged lean phase to come up with a double century in their innings and 182-run win over South Africa.
“I wish you would stop telling me my age. I don’t feel 36,” Warner said after the MCG Test ended inside four days.
“I’m running faster than a lot of these youngsters in (the dressing room). So when they catch up to me then I might think about pulling the pin.
“The extra motivation for me is winning in India, and completely winning a series in England. I’ve been told by the coach and the selectors they’d like me to be there. I still know what energy I can bring to the team.” On his Test career, Warner said: “Was there doubts? Yeah, of course, there was doubts in my mind. But for me, it was about just going out there and knowing that I’ve still got that hunger and determination because every time I rock up the training I’ve got it.
“I think once I’ve started losing that spark and energy around training and, you know, taking the mickey out of people, playing some jokes here and there … I think that’s when I probably know it’s time.” Australia will take on India in four Tests with series opener scheduled in Nagpur from February 9.
“We know what we’re going to prepare for, they’re going to be turning wickets. It’s different with the venues, Nagpur and Delhi quite dry, then Dharamsala that time of the year, we’ve played there, and we probably should have won that Test, but we lost that ourselves.
“There’s going to be times when it’s going to be challenging over there, but it’s about how our batters can build and bat big as we did in Pakistan.
“I think with the ball, we’re going to do a fantastic job, we’ve got a world-class spinner in Nathan Lyon and we’re going to have to potentially think about playing two spinners.” “Obviously in Sri Lanka, we had good methods and we saw in that first Test in Galle, everyone was playing reverse sweeps and sweeps, everyone had a method and they stuck to it,” he added.
Asked if this would be Australia’s best chance to win that elusive Test series in India, Warner said, “Shall I start the headlines now, before we go over there? I did remember somebody talking about two-day Test the other week. It’s going to be interesting.” Fed up with Cricket Australia’s “public trial” to lift his leadership ban from the South Africa ball-tampering scandal, Warner recently had an outburst and said his family can’t be “washing machine for cricket’s dirty laundry”.
“That’s all parked now. I don’t have to worry about that. Not even thinking about it. (The) focus is now towards Sydney and getting myself right for the BBL (Big Bash League),” he said.
