Rumours are rife that veteran opener David Warner might have played his last Test for Australia in the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy against India.
Amid the speculations, Warner's wife Candice has claimed that the southpaw gave up the option of having a farewell in Sydney to keep dreams of playing the Ashes 2023 alive.
Warner's Test future came under the scanner after he returned home following the second Test against India in Delhi with a fractured elbow. His Test form has been a cause of concern since 2022. In 14 matches, the veteran opener has scored just 607 runs at 26.39, which includes a double-century in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa.
Many experts, including the Australian batting great Ricky Ponting, believe that Warner should have called time on his red-ball career on a high after the Sydney Test versus South Africa earlier this year.
However, the left-hander travelled to India for the four-match Test series and registered scores of 1, 10 and 15 from the three innings that he batted. He looked far from being comfortable against the spinners.
Now, his wife Candice has said that Warner didn’t retire in front of his home crowd to keep his Ashes dream alive.
"David still has a burning desire to open the batting for Australia. There's still a lot of things that he wants to achieve that he hasn't achieved," Candice Warner told Yahoo Sport Australia.
"And clearly one of those would be to perform at the best he possibly can in England against the Dukes ball. Whether the selectors and the coach allows him that, I don't know. But I do know he still has that desire and that hunger to continue.
"He'd love to go out on his terms but you're not always afforded that opportunity and David fully realises that. He could have easily retired after the Sydney Test this year, but that's not what he wants. He still wanted to contribute to the team in India and still be there at the Ashes and then we'll just see."
Candice also revealed that Warner is fully committed to playing cricket for Australia and not thinking about the retirement yet.
"There are so many (T20 franchises) around the world, whether it be the IPL, the Dubai League, the BBL, America, South Africa, Pakistan. There's also his role with Fox Sports which he's excited about and wants to develop. We'll just have to wait and see but at this stage he's fully committed to playing cricket for Australia," she remarked.
