David Warner retires from ODIs ahead of farewell Test, keeps alive possibility of playing CT 2025

David Warner has announcedhe will retire from ODI cricket as well after the end of the ongoing Australia-Pakistan Test series,which is also his farewell fromred-ball format. Warnermade the decision on the eve of the New Year's Test, i.e. the final match of the series,between bothsides at the Sydney Cricket Ground, SCG. Pat Cummins & Co.enjoy an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series heading into Warner's final Test.

'I know there's a Champions Trophy coming up...'

"I'm definitely retiring from one-day cricket as well," Warner said at the SCG on Monday (January 1). "That was something that I had said through the World Cup, get through that, and winning it in India, I think that's a massive achievement."

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"So I'll make that decision today, to retire from those forms, which does allow me to go and play some other leagues around the world and sort of get the one-day team moving forward a little bit. I know there's a Champions Trophy coming up. If I'm playing decent cricket in two years' time and I'm around and they need someone, I'm going to be available," he opined.

The decision, thus, puts an end to an illustrious careerfor Warner in ODIs. The swashbuckling left-hander made his debut in the format in2009and amassed 6,932 runs in161 ODIs at an average of 45.30 anda strike rate of97.26. He ends with a total of22 hundreds in the shorter format,only behind Ricky Ponting's tally of 29 in the list of Australia's most prolific scorers. Overall, he ends as Australia's sixth-highest run-getter in ODIs with two World Cup titles (in 2015 and 2023).

Warner further added, "It was a decision that I was very, very comfortable with. To win in India (i.e. the 2023 ODI WC), from where we were, was absolutely amazing.

"When we lost two games in a row in India, the bond just got stronger with each other and it's not by fluke or by chance that we were able to get to where we were. The heroics of Maxi [Glenn Maxwell], the captaincy and the skills and execution of the way that we played against India was phenomenal, and not to dismiss the Kolkata semi-final as well."

In the 2023 ODI WC, Warner ended with 530 runs -- sixth-highest overall and most by an Australian-- with two centuries and an equal number of half-centuries. Thus, he will now only be available in T20Is and look to help Australia win the 2024 T20 World Cup, in West Indies and USA, in June.

Talking about his Test career, he will look to end it in style in the third and final Test versus Pakistan at his home ground, i.e. the SCG, Sydney. He has8,695 runs including 26 tons and 36 fifties in Tests.

The Australia-Pakistan third and final Test kicks off on Jan 3 (Wednesday).