‘We love Davey but he’s retired’ Pat Cummins shuns David Warner’s comeback proposal for India Tests Australia Test captain Pat Cummins said the Team Management is not Considering David Warner’s Proposal to make a comeback for the India Test series starting November 22 in Perth
Friday, 25 Oct 2024 00:00 am

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Australia Test captain Pat Cummins said the team management is not considering David Warner’s proposal to make a comeback for the India Test series starting November 22 in Perth.

Days after Warner went public about his keenness to return to open for the hosts in the marquee Border-Gavaskar series should Australia consider asking him, Cummins ended all speculations with a clear no.

The fiery left-handed opener retired from Tests in January this year, with batting veteran Steve Smith opening in his absence.

Though that experiment didn’t work out the way Smith and Cricket Australia (CA) would have thought, and now that he is back to batting at number four against India, CA has zeroed in on a few options as the squad announcement date looms.

Australia is backing keeper-batter Jos Inglis to fill in the spot at the top, with Cameron Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Shield’s emerging star Sam Konstas being other options.

Meanwhile, Cummins addressed this topic during a chat on The Grade Cricketer Podcast, saying he spoke with Warner a few days ago but doesn’t remember talking about his comeback.

Though cheekily, Cummins answered all questions.

"Dave, we’re very interested. We’re taking it very seriously and we’ll be in touch, mate," Cummins said on the podcast.

"I did speak to Dave a couple of days ago.

I can’t remember if he reached out or I did he’s like, “What do you think?”, and I was like, “Yeah, good luck with [Sydney] Thunder and I look forward to your comments on Fox. 

"I think the truth’s somewhere in the middle. I reckon it (offer) is a bit of a wind-up, but I reckon, he doesn’t mind seeing himself in the back page.

We love Davey, but he is retired," Cummins added.

Oz ready for India challenge
Having failed to beat India twice in the past two outings at home, Australia is raring to go against the top-ranked Test side in the world.

The hosts have their bases covered, and with Smith returning to his preferred batting position, where he has scored a bulk of runs throughout, the Aussies have strengthened their batting attack.

Meanwhile, their bowling line-up consists of the four most-feared bowlers, Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon.

Besides Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney will host the remaining four matches.