Former Australian cricketer Simon O’Donnell is not in favour of opening batter David Warner getting a farewell Test, saying no one should have the right to pick and choose the venue and date of his choice. Warner, 37, had indicated earlier this year that he would like to finish his Test career at his home ground in Sydney against Pakistan in January next year. The all-format player will continue playing white-ball cricket but is planning to call it a day in the longest format with the three-Test series against Pakistan beginning on December 14 and concluding with the third Test in Sydney in January.
“I don’t like farewell tours. I didn’t like it back in Steve Waugh’s Day or Mark Taylor’s Day. I think you’re invited to play for Australia and it’s an honour to do that,” O’Donnell opined on Sen Radio on Friday.
“I don’t think anyone has the right to say, ‘I’ll finish, on the 30th of June this year’.”
Questioned if it was right to select the left-handed batter for the Test series based on his form during the Ashes rubber earlier this year or his performance in white-ball format, O’Donnell said, there should be a discussion on the issue.
“There would be genuine debate about that. Like Cameron Bancroft, I’m not sure how much more he needs to do.”
“He just keeps peeling off hundreds and if it’s not 100 it’s a 60. If he has one bad innings, he then makes another 100 you know, he’s just been in brilliant form the last 18 months,” said O’Donnell, who played six Tests and 87 ODIs for Australia.
Bancroft, along with then skipper Steve Smith and Warner, was banned for a year for his involvement in the ‘sandpaper-gate’ scandal during Australia’s third Test against South Africa in Cape Town in 2018.
O’Donnell questioned the selectors how long will Bancroft have to wait for his turn to play Tests following the 2018 episode.
“Do you make him wait another summer? Because that’s what he’s going to have to do if that plan (to play Warner) goes ahead.
“I think the game is always bigger than the individual. There’s a lot to take in. But the first thing Australia’s got to do is win their Test match. If David Warner is the best at number one at the top of the order, so be it,” he added.
O’Donnell feels it’s time for Warner to call it a day in Tests.
“I do in the white ball (format), no problem at all. But with the red ball, I think it’s time. But we’re in this corner, we’re just coming off a World Cup, and that’s going to muddy the waters.
“Everyone will say, ‘Oh yeah, what about his World Cup?’ So that buys some more time (for Warner), I think.”
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