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David Warner won’t be considered for next year’s ODI Champions Trophy after he said he would be open to playing the tournament despite announcing his international retirement.
As Warner did in January when he said last year’s ODI World Cup would mark the end of his career in the format, he repeated his call about the Champions Trophy in a recent social media post following the end of the T20 World Cup which marked the conclusion of his Australia career. But George Bailey, Australia’s national selector, said Warner was considered fully retired and the legacy he has left as an all-format player should be appreciated.
“Our understanding is that David is retired, and [he] should be commended on what has been an incredible career across all three formats,” Bailey said. “Certainly, our planning is that he won’t be there in Pakistan.
“You never know when Bull’s joking…think he’s just stirring the pot a bit. He’s had a wonderful career, can’t celebrate it enough, and think as time goes by, his legacy of what he has done for Australia and we reflect back on that, the legend of a player is only going to continue to grow. But as far as this team goes and the journey to transition to some different players, in his case across all three formats, it’s going to be exciting.”
However, Bailey added that the selectors were not moving on from other players around white-ball cricket even as they shifted focus to the future, particularly with the T20I squad for the tours of Scotland and England which featured a call up for Cooper Connolly and Jake Fraser-McGurk, following the Super Eight exit in West Indies.
Matthew Wade has been left out and would appear to have played his last game for Australia but that has not been made official. Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell have been rested from the T20Is but there have not been discussions on their longer-term future in the format ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka. Australia have nine T20Is left this year (three apiece against Scotland, England and Pakistan) and then do not play the format again until next July in West Indies, which begins a run of 17 games, according to the Future Tours Programme, before the next World Cup.
“I don’t think there’s anyone who’s not there that we’ve put a line through permanently besides David,” Bailey said. “This is the way we are going with this squad. If opportunities arise or there are gaps at different points there’s nothing to say that Wadey might not come back, but certainly, at this point, we are excited about giving Josh [Inglis] a run.
“The next T20 World Cup is 2026, so I imagine there may be some more changes than what we are seeing in this squad but specifically to those guys [Starc and Maxwell], no we haven’t had any conversations about where they think their T20 journey may finish.
“Certainly for Glenn and Mitch, the Champions Trophy is very much on the horizon, [and is a] very important tournament for those guys. And Starcy in particular, I think he’s going to have a huge summer. Clearly, some of the decisions made around this series are around prioritising and getting guys right for what will be a really big summer. As far as ending players, seeing where guys might finish up, we haven’t had those conversations.”
“The next T20 World Cup is 2026, so I imagine there may be some more changes than what we are seeing in this squad but specifically to those guys [Starc and Maxwell], no we haven’t had any conversations.”
George Bailey, Australia selector
Reflecting on last month’s T20 World Cup, Bailey said there was a lingering frustration that it had fallen apart for Australia in barely 36 hours with their defeats to Afghanistan and India having been unbeaten until that point.
“Still think that T20 side, the foundation of it, is a really, really good team,” he said. “It didn’t feel like we needed to completely rip it apart and start from scratch. But it’s also a great opportunity to start to explore some other guys. Cooper’s one who hasn’t had an opportunity, [and] there’s a number of guys who have been on some tours and played one or two games but haven’t had a great deal of opportunity yet. So excited to see them get a bit more of an opportunity and start to work out how they fit into that team or into that squad.”
He also praised the captaincy of Mitchell Marsh who will lead both squads on the UK tour with Pat Cummins missing the whole trip to work on conditioning ahead of the home summer.
“I loved the way he captained through the T20 World Cup,” Bailey said. “He was really clear on how he wanted to lead that team. He was as disappointed as anyone that we didn’t get to the end goal that everyone was hoping to achieve, but if you look at his early success rate as a captain across T20 he’s done a really great job.”
Andrew McGlashan is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo
