Currently banned by Cricket Australia for his role in the ball-tampering saga, David Warner is confident he will return to the national side in full flow ahead of the 2019 ICC World Cup. The left-hander who returned to competitive cricket in the Global T20 tournament in Canada is now playing in the NT Strike league for City Cyclones in Darwin.
The swashbuckling batsman believes that this break is beneficial for him and that a player cannot lose form overnight. Warner is also expecting to be part of the IPL next season as he prepares for the World Cup in England.
“I know the break’s doing me well. You don’t lose form overnight. I’ll wake up every day, face Mitchell Starc, Cummins, Hazlewood, the best bowlers I feel in the world. If I can face them consistently in training when the ban’s up, that gets you back in,” Cricbuzz quoted Warner.
“You know there’s plenty of warm-up games, I will be in the IPL as well leading into that. There’s plenty of cricket, plenty of world-class players playing there to get my preparation on song,” said Warner.
The opening batsman made it clear that he is taking his chances with grade cricket sincerely and said, “I’m here [at the NT Strike] to play cricket and I love doing that. I wouldn’t be here today and continue to keep working my backside off to keep scoring runs for each team that I play for if I didn’t love it. I wouldn’t be here, I’d probably retire. This is just a little stepping stone to keep continuing my progress to putting my hand up and keep enabling myself to keep scoring as many runs as I can for every single team I play for in the next eight months.”
The 31-year old said also added that forced time away from the game made him realise that there is more than just cricket. “The longest I’ve had is six weeks off in the last, I guess, seven years. The last 12 weeks before I went to Canada was great, just to reflect on myself as a human being, just be a dad and a husband. It’s been pleasurable and I’ve really enjoyed that,” he said.
“We live in a bubble, and we don’t realise it until it’s taken away from you. There’s a lot more to life than just cricket. Things happen for a reason; this is probably my break to keep me going to prolong my career,” he added.
GET APP
David Warner Returns to Action in Australia, Eyes National Recall
Pat Cummins Cautious About Rushing Back to Competitive Cricket
Live TV