David Warner announced his retirement from the T20I format following Australia’s exit from the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024, marking the end of his international cricket career after retiring from ODIs and Tests earlier this year.
However, a couple of weeks later, the explosive southpaw indicated in a social media post that the focus going forward will be on franchise cricket but kept the door open for Champions Trophy 2025 in Pakistan ‘if selected’.
On Tuesday, George Bailey, the chair of the Australian men’s selection panel, has confirmed that Australia’s focus will be on the future, indicating that they consider Warner retired from international cricket.
“I think he’s just stirring the pot a bit. Our understanding is that David’s retired and should be commended on what is an incredible career across all three formats,” Bailey said while announcing Australia’s squad for the white-ball tour of the UK.
“Certainly our planning is he won’t be there in Pakistan,” he made it clear.
“You never know when Bull’s joking…He’s had a wonderful career, can’t celebrate it enough, and think as time goes by, his legacy of what he has done for Australia and we reflect back on that, the legend of a player is only going to continue to grow. But as far as this team goes and the journey to transition to some different players, in his case across all three formats, it’s going to be exciting,” Bailey added.
With a focus on what’s ahead, Australia included young guns Cooper Connolly and Jake Fraser-McGurk in the squads set to face Scotland and England. A notable omission from the squad was Matthew Wade, as Josh Inglis was chosen for the wicket-keeper role in both the T20I and ODI squads.
Bailey clarified that Wade is not retired and could still be considered for a return, but expressed excitement about giving Inglis an opportunity.
“I don’t think there’s anyone that’s not there (in the UK squads) that we’ve put a line through permanently besides David (Warner) who’s retired,” Bailey said.
“I don’t think anyone else has formally retired. If opportunities arise or there are gaps at a different point there’s nothing to say that Wadey might not come back, but certainly at this point we’re excited about giving Josh (Inglis) a run,” Bailey added.
Mitchell Starc and Glenn Maxwell have been rested from the T20Is but there have not been discussions on their longer-term future in the format ahead of the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
“The next T20 World Cup is 2026, so I imagine there may be some more changes than what we are seeing in this squad but specifically to those guys (Starc and Maxwell), no we haven’t had any conversations about where they think their T20 journey may finish.
“Certainly for Glenn and Mitch, the Champions Trophy is very much on the horizon, [and is a] very important tournament for those guys. And Starcy in particular, I think he’s going to have a huge summer. Clearly, some of the decisions made around this series are around prioritising and getting guys right for what will be a really big summer. As far as ending players, seeing where guys might finish up, we haven’t had those conversations,” he said.
Australia will travel to the United Kingdom for a white-ball tour in September, starting with a three-match T20I series against Scotland after which they will face England in three T20Is and five ODIs.
Reflecting on Australia’s performance in the T20 World Cup, Bailey praised the captaincy of Mitchell Marsh, who will lead both squads on the UK tour with Pat Cummins missing the whole trip to work on conditioning ahead of the home summer.
“I loved the way he captained through the T20 World Cup,” Bailey said. “He was really clear on how he wanted to lead that team. He was as disappointed as anyone that we didn’t get to the end goal that everyone was hoping to achieve, but if you look at his early success rate as a captain across T20 he’s done a really great job,” Bailey commented.