IND vs AUS: ‘The best time for David Warner to retire was after his 100th Test,’ says Ricky Ponting

David Warner may have left the Australian team midway in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy after suffering an injury in the second Test at Delhi but the Aussie opener faced a tough time in his international career. Former Australian captain Ricky Ponting believes that Warner should have retired after his double hundred in his 100th Test match in December last year.
“Look, I was on radio a couple of days ago, back here in Australia, and I thought the absolute best time for Davey to retire if he was thinking about it at all, was after the Sydney Test match here in Australia. He had just played his 100th Test in Melbourne and obviously got 200 in the first innings down there. And to bow out in front of his home crowd is obviously the way that every player would like to finish their careers,” Ponting told The ICC Review.
Warned had not scored a hundred in his last 15 Test matches before hitting a 254-ball double century against South Africa at Melbourne in December. The 36-year-old did not manage a score of 20 or above in his last three Test matches including the first two Test matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The Australian opener suffered an elbow injury in the first innings in the second Test match at Delhi and was ruled out of the tour. With the Australian Test team qualifying for the World Test Championship final, Ponting also believes that the team would prefer Warner in the WTC final in June.
Warner has scored a total of 8,158 runs in 103 Test matches for Australia and the former Australian captain thinks the Australian selectors will bring Warner back for the WTC final to see his chances for playing in the Ashes.

“I think they’ll definitely want to play him in the World Test Championship match. They have got some really big decisions to make, leading into the Ashes [in England] as well. A bit like some of the selection issues they had coming to India. They’re probably going to have similar things to think about when they get to the UK because David’s record in the UK is not as strong as it is in some other places around the world. But I don’t think it’s the end of David Warner, I think they’ll bring him back for that one game. If he does well there, then I think he’ll probably start the Ashes and see from there,” said Ponting.