Banned Australia cricketer David Warner is eyeing to feature in the ICC World Cup 2019 and the subsequent Indian Premier League. On Saturday (July 21), Warner played his first cricket match in Australia since his ball-tampering suspension.
Featuring in the Northern Territory Strike League, Warner scored 36 off 32 balls for City Cyclones against Northern Tide at the Marrara Cricket Ground. Although Warner is yet to amass a big score in competitive cricket ever since his return to a Twenty20 tournament in Canada, he believes there is an ample time between his suspension ending and the World Cup starting to get things back on track.
When Warner will return to training whether for New South Wales or as a part of an Australia squad - he will be tested in the practice nets by bowlers such as Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon.
“I’m pretty good when I’m fresh. If you look at the last 12 months, I played basically every game (for Australia) and didn’t get a rest. I had a five-day turnaround before the first Test in South Africa and I led the team in (the T20 tri-series in Australia and) New Zealand when some of the other guys had a rest. So I know that the breaks do me (good), and you don’t lose form overnight,” Warner quoted as saying by cricket.com.au.
“You can be a bit scratchy, but time in the nets and … I wake up every day and face Mitchell Starc, Cummins and Hazlewood, the best bowlers, I feel, in the world. If I can face them consistently at training when the ban’s up, that gets you back in. You’ve got plenty of warm-up games (before the World Cup, and I’ll be playing the IPL (Indian Premier League T20 competition) as well leading into that. So there’s plenty of cricket and plenty of world-class players to play against, as well to get my preparation on song,” he added.
Addressing the media conference after the ball-tampering saga, Warner had broken down saying that he might never play for Australia again. However, the tainted Aussie opener sounded confident on Saturday expressed his intention to continue at international level once his suspension is completed, and for some time into the future.
“I wouldn’t be here today and working my backside off to keep scoring as many runs as I can for each team that I play for if I didn’t love it – I’d probably retire,” Warner remarked.
“But I’ve still got plenty of fuel in the tank and I’m excited. I have the next eight months to reflect upon what’s happened and then moving forward to be a better person and a better cricketer. I’m just ticking along to make sure I’m preparing well for this and the CPL coming up,” he concluded.
Warner played in the Global T20 Canada League last month. He represented Winnipeg Hawks in the tournament but couldn’t make a mark with the bat. The left-hander had amassed 109 runs in 8 innings for the Winnipeg Hawks with 55 is his highest score. David Warner will play for St Lucia Stars in the forthcoming Caribbean Premier League.
