‘Really hungry to continue’: Why Warner won’t let Test opener role go without a fight

Candice Warner revealed her husband David remains “really hungry” to prolong his Test career amid recent injury woes and the strong form displayed by Travis Head as an opener against India.

Warner, like most of the Australian batting order, battled for runs in the first Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy series before exiting the second Test due to concussion and flying back after it was revealed he had a fractured elbow.

In his absence, Head was thrust into an opening role and averaged 44.6 runs from the five times he was at the top of the batting order.

It poured further fuel onto the fire in regards to the debate surrounding Warner’s role given he didn’t chalk up as many runs as he’d have liked in the summer but reminded the world of his immense talent with an incredibly courageous innings of 200 against South Africa in the Boxing Day Test.

Despite the 36-year-old conceding previously he doesn’t have much mileage left in his Test career, Candice believes her husband has plenty more to give before he joins the Fox Cricket team on a full-time basis.

“As far as we’ve spoken about and as far as I know, he’s really hungry to continue,” Candice said.

“There’s one Test series done and that’s the India one, but there’s still a lot to go.

“There’s the Test Championship in June against India at The Oval, then The Ashes and then a home summer.

“He’s still keen, he’s still driven, he’s still got a lot of goals that he wants to achieve.

“I think that while he still has that hunger and desire, he’ll continue.”

Warner was announced as a future member of the Fox Cricket commentary team during the summer and Candice believes her husband is “really looking forward to increasing the role” once he hangs up the gloves for good.

But until then, Warner still has plenty of cricket to offer, even if it’s not for the Australian team.

“It’s so fantastic there’s all these new leagues around the world,” Candice said.

“Even if he was to retire from Australian cricket and international cricket, there’s so much more cricket to be played.

“Whether it would be the IPL, the Hundred ball in England. We’re seeing different T20 franchises popping up, whether it be in Pakistan or the Caribbean league, there’s so many opportunities for cricketers to play outside of Australia.”