“Fully in our plans for the Test World Championship”

Australian head coach Andrew McDonald threw his weight behind David Warner ahead of the World Test Championship (WTC) final in June. McDonald said the southpaw is in their plans for the WTC decider and can’t wait to see how he performs in the upcoming ODI series against India.

Warner Test’s career has come under scrutiny after his recent performances in the format. While his 200 against South Africa in Melbourne was a notable hit, the 36-year-old struggled in India with a high of just 15 in three sets.

With Travis Head doing well at the top of the command after Warner returned home due to injury, the latter’s place is even more in jeopardy.

Speaking ahead of the ODI series against India, Andrew McDonald confirmed that David Warner has recovered from injuries which ruled him out of the red leg. The former Australian all-rounder also stressed the need to manage the players’ workload in a hectic schedule.

As quoted by “The Age”, he said:

“I think you work through that conversation, and how every player finishes is always different. Some want to come out a certain way, and others are okay with potentially being kicked out of the sides.

“But at the moment Dave is fully in our plans for the World Test Championship, he’s coming back for the one day series, he’s recovered from his injury there so we’ll see Dave back under the Australian colors on the 17th and we’ll go from there.”

McDonald added:

“We are continually talking to our senior players about what they have to come. Juggling the schedule ahead of us. We are looking at 274 days on the road – 144 for the red ball team, 130 for the white ball team .”

Despite his poor form, Warner suggested he wanted to travel to England for the Ashes. The dynamic fly-half has a poor record in England Tests, averaging just 26 with no centuries under his belt.

“We’re super excited about it” – Andrew McDonald on the WTC Finals

Andrew McDonald also said the prospect of contesting the World Test Championship (WTC) final excites Australia. He thinks their efforts have been commendable given the difficulty of the cycle and added:

“We’re super excited about it. If you look at what we started in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, we defined that as three series in the subcontinent. We came away with three wins, three losses and three draws.

“It’s a pretty tough World Championship cycle of testing so to finish top of the standings with that on the schedule is pretty impressive and we’re also the world No 1 so pretty proud of what the team has been able to accomplish, but saying that, we didn’t achieve what we wanted here in India.”

Australia and India will contest the WTC Finals on June 7 at The Oval. Before that, they will face off in a three-match ODI series starting on March 17.