'Enough is Enough': Former AUS Vice-Captain Fed Up With David Warner; Wants Him to Stay Out of Squad for BGT

Former Australia Women’s skipper Lisa Sthalekar wants bygones to be bygones, as she hammered recently-retired opener David Warner’s comments on coming out of retirement for the Australia Test squad ahead of the highly-anticipated Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

Australia are currently in a pickle with figuring out who would open the batting for the side against India, with names such as Cameron Bancroft, Sam Konstas, Marcus Harris and even Josh Inglis floating around as a possible partner for Usman Khawaja.

In light of AUS’ struggles, Warner had come out and said that he is willing to come out of retirement from Tests to help his national side should they need him to fill the spot for the upcoming five-match Test series against India.

“I did retire for the right reasons to finish the game, and I wanted to finish. But my hand is up if they desperately need someone. I’m not going to shy away from that,” Warner said, adding that he had cheekily messaged both Australia’s head coach Andrew McDonald and chief selector George Bailey about the situation.

“I’ve spoken to Torch (McDonald) and his answer back to me was, ‘you retired,’” Warner laughed. “I don’t think he wants to give me the pleasure of him saying, ‘can you come back?’”

Warner’s statements though did not go down well with former Australian women’s vice-captain Sthalekar, who said that bringing back the 37-year-old should not be an option that should be entertained by Australian selection chair George Bailey or skipper Pat Cummins.

“What baffles me is that this guy had his swansong last summer to say farewell and finish on his terms,” Sthalekar wrote in her column for The Nightly.

“One could argue that because of that allowance, the team is in this situation as selectors didn’t use those Tests wisely to blood the next opener.

“Therefore, Warner suggesting to answer the mayday call if it was to come, will only kick the issue down the road again. With England coming out next summer, enough is enough.”

Warner called time on his red-ball career after the recent three-match Test series against Pakistan earlier in 2024.

He retired from the long format of the game after scoring 8,786 runs and 26 centuries, including a career-best 335 not out across his Test career.