Former Australian cricketer, Ricky Ponting has suggested Delhi Capitals (DC) skipper David Warner should give up on one format in International cricket. Concurrently, Ponting is with the Capitals in Indian Premier League (IPL) as a head coach. Before the start of the 16th edition of the cash-rich league–the Delhi-based side appointed Warner as their skipper after Rishabh Pant was unavailable for the season due to injury following a horrific car crash.
While the Australian team will face Team India in the 2023 World Test Championship (WTC) Final on June 7, after the completion of IPL 2023, Warner will likely feature for the Aussies in the upcoming Test Tour.
However, he didn’t perform well in the last two Test matches he played for his side in India during the recently-concluded Border-Gavaskar Trophy.
Ricky Ponting suggested David Warner may have to give up one format-
“It’s as important as the individual wants it to be. When I was coming to the end of my career, T20 cricket was starting to take off around the world.
“I made a decision to not play T20 cricket and focus on ODIs and Tests for Australia because there was a 50-over World Cup coming and I had to be the best player I could be I knew if I was going to play all T20s then something had to give,” said the former Australian skipper.
Warner, 36, was in rousing form as he plundered a brilliant double ton against South Africa in Melbourne in December 2022, but after that, he managed just 26 runs in three innings of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (BGT) 2023 in India.
Ross Taylor believes David Warner should be a part of the Australia team for the #WTC23 Final ?
More ? https://t.co/iH5cVc7DI7 pic.twitter.com/P5MkPSdDyR
— ICC (@ICC) April 1, 2023
Later, he was ruled out of BGT 2023 as he got injured in the second Test match at Delhi. However, Warner was included in Cricket Australia’s list of 24 nationally contracted players last week.
“If you look back through the history of the game, there have many players who have been able to dominate all formats of the game at the same time,” he further added.
In his absence, Travis Head opened the innings for Australia with Usman Khawaja and impressed one and all. However, Warner is backed to reclaim a spot at the top of the order for the WTC final, which will be played from June 7-11 at the Oval in London.
While, Warner played the ODI series in India after recovering from injury and Australia’s head coach, Andrew Mcdonald backed the Southpaw batter for selection in World Test Championship (WTC) Final 2023.
Warner has found English conditions particularly testing in the past and compiled only 95 runs in 10 innings during the most recent Ashes campaign there in 2019. Australia will play an Ashes series in England in the months after the WTC Final in what looms as a pivotal period for what has so far proven to be the top team of the current WTC cycle.
While in IPL 2023, DC has faced back-to-back losses–and will play their 3rd game against Rajasthan Royals (RR) on April 8 at Guwahati.