Last Updated on 2 years by Charbel Coorey
Cricket News: David Warner may retire from Tests if he has a poor South Africa series – Ian Chappell | Chappell on David Warner
Former Australian skipper Ian Chappell has suggested that a knife might be hanging over Australian opener David Warner’s head provided he fails to deliver in the team’s upcoming three-match Test series vs South Africa. Chappell predicted that Warner’s Test career could possibly take ominous turns on the back of a rather long-drawn spell of poor form in red-ball cricket.
The southpaw scored 5 and 48 in the two innings of Australia’s thumping victory by 164 runs against the West Indies in the opening Test in Perth. However, the 36-year-old has been far from his best in the longest format of the game over the last couple of years. He averages merely 22.79 in eight Tests played in 2022 and the last of his 26 centuries came way back in January 2020 at the Sydney Cricket Ground against New Zealand.
Australia’s upcoming assignments against South Africa and India, along with the remaining Test vs West Indies, are critical with respect to their qualification prospects for the finals of the World Test Championship (WTC) 2021-23. The Pat Cummins-led side will also be heading to England for the Ashes next year. Under these circumstances, questions are being raised over Warner’s continuity in the Test side and Chappell seems to have made a nuanced comment on the same.
If Warner flops against South Africa, he may give up Tests – Ian Chappell
“Warner is quite smart, and I think he will understand all those things. It will be up to him to know himself. He’ll probably get a better idea after they play South Africa. He’ll be facing a really good pace attack. If that is a flop, well, Keith Miller had the best take on retirement that I’ve heard, he was asked why he retired, and he said he wanted to retire when people were saying, ‘Why did you’ rather than, ‘Why don’t you’,” Chappell was quoted by the Wide World Of Sports (WWOS).
Chappell added, “That could be a question for Warner before he goes to England, or even before he goes to India, if the South African series is a disaster for him.”
However, the 79-year-old also acknowledged the lack of a suitable replacement to Warner and stated that finding a better alternative is always a tougher task than dropping a player from the team. “It’s up to Warner to realise that. I think they’ll take him to India and England if he makes himself available. I’ve always said the easy thing with selection is to drop a guy, the harder thing is to find someone better. That is definitely the case with Warner,” Chappell explained.
The veteran cricketer-turned-commentator also revealed that the Sheffied Shield doesn’t paint a very pretty picture as most of the leading run-scorers have already been tried and tested in the Australian setup before. He also did not express any confidence in Marcus Harris and proclaimed Matthew Renshaw to be a better player than him.
Chappell also said that Usman Khawaja, who averages 51.20 with four centuries and half-centuries from eight Tests this year, could struggle against quality attacks of India and South Africa. However, he backed Warner to take a call on his Test retirement at an appropriate time.
“I think David is smart enough to say, ‘That’s it’ if it does hit him suddenly, because to me retirement is the one decision that is selfish. You make it for one person, and one person only. If you suddenly realise it’s all over, you’re best to say it’s over right now,” Chappell signed off.
