Australian captain Pat Cummins appears to have poured cold water on David Warner’s bombshell comeback call sending a cheeky message to the former opener.
Warner sent the cricketing world into a spin earlier this week after saying ‘he is always available’ despite retiring last summer as Australia struggles to find an answer to its opening problem.
Potential openers like WA’s Cam Bancroft, Marcus Harris and Sam Konstas struggled in the latest Sheffield Shield round with no one putting their name up in the lights to face India this summer.
However, Cummins is confident they have enough talent to find a solution without the need for Warner.
“Dave, we’re very interested, we’re taking it very seriously and we’ll be in touch mate,” he joked on The Grade Cricketer podcast.
“I did speak to Dave a couple of days ago and he said ‘you know, what do you think’? And I’m like, ‘yeah, good luck with the Thunder this year… I look forward to your comments on Fox’.”
The Australian captain also spoke more broadly over the selection debate, with his comments suggesting the team won’t be shuffling the current batting order to fix the problem as they did with Steve Smith last summer.
“I wake up in the papers and I see Trav Head’s or Mitch Marsh is firming as favourite to open the batting and I’m like, ‘that’s the first I’ve ever heard of it’,” he said.
“I find it hilarious.”
While Cummins has no interest in Warner the opener again, he was part of character references that helped overturn his lifetime leadership ban for his role in the 2018 sandpaper scandal.
“Since 2018, he has acknowledged his responsibility to the game and future generations and stepped up his engagement with communities who play cricket,” he told the panel.
“David was instrumental in supporting the Australian Cricket Team undertaking the most recent tours to Pakistan and Sri Lanka. During these tours his upholding of the spirit of cricket and his respect for the opposition as did his understanding of the importance of those tours for the game.
“These higher considerations transcended the matches we played in and were felt by the cricket-loving public in those nations.”
Cummins’ predecessor Tim Paine said Warner was just trying to stir the pot with his comments.
“If I was writing you a text message, it would have the fishing rod emoji because that is what David is doing,” Paine told SEN Tassie.
“He’s gone fishing, and everyone has bitten down hard. Not only have they taken the bait, they’ve eaten the rod and chewed off half his arm at the same time.
“David is retired, he will not be playing in the next Shield game or more Test cricket for Australia. That was clear when he retired.
“But what he has got is one of the great knacks of saying something and people just biting down on it so well done to him.
“He says he’s dead serious, but he’s not dead serious.”
Content Source: www.perthnow.com.au