‌David Warner ‘open to play Champions Trophy’ despite international retirement

Warner, who marked T20 World Cup 2024 as his final international assignment, penned an Instagram post stating his will to play for the Champions Trophy 2025 if ‘selected’. 

Australia’s elimination in the Super Eight stages of the T20 World Cup marked his final goodbye from international cricket. During the Pakistan series in Australia’s home summer this year, he bid adieu to red-ball cricket. The Paddington-born will be actively playing franchise cricket all around the world with stints in the Global T20 Canada, Big Bash League, and ILT20, among others.

"Australia was my team. The majority of my career was at the international level. It's been an honour to be able to do this. 100+ games in all formats is my highlight," the 37-year-old's post read.

In recent times, the southpaw endorsed Jake Fraser-McGurk as the perfect candidate to fill his void in the international circuit. While the youngster is an exciting prospect, he is yet to prove his mettle in the national colours. This leaves an option of bringing Warner back for an ICC event for the national selectors.

In January 2024, Australia Test and ODI skipper Pat Cummins responded to the possibility of Warner’s one-off return for the Champions Trophy 2025.

"I think it's probably time to give some others a crack [in ODIs], but knowing that he's going to still be playing cricket," he said. "So it might be more of a kind of break glass in an emergency option. But, you know, David is going to be scoring runs somewhere in the world. So you never quite know that this is [the end]," said Cummins.

Warner scored  6932 runs at an impressive average of 45.30 in ODIs. His 22 centuries is the second to only Ricky Ponting from Australia.