David Warner may quit IPL to prolong Test career

David Warner wants to focus on Test cricket

Australian opening batsman David Warner has said that he could quit playing the Indian Premier League (IPL) in a bid to prolong his Test career. Citing the taxing schedule, as a result of the amount of cricket being played by cricketers these days, the 28-year-old has said that he needs to sacrifice something to make sure his body doesn’t break down.

Writing in his Herald Sun column, Warner said: "I pinch myself every day that I'm opening the batting for Australia in Test matches, especially on an occasion like this at the Sydney Cricket Ground. And from now until I retire, I want to focus on Test cricket as much as I can, because that's the way forward for me.”

He added: "I started off playing Twenty20 and it was fantastic — I still love playing for my country in that format. But in the future I may need to weigh up my options and at the very least, consider how much longer I play in the IPL for.

“We've got a long 18 months ahead and I need to have a clear mind about where I want to go for the next five years right through to the end of my career.”

The left-hander, who represents Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL and is one of the most sought-after T20 batsmen in the world, however, confirmed that he will play the tournament this year.

He wrote: "I'll play in the IPL this year, but the schedule is so hard for us to play and there's six weeks you could have off.”

‘Don’t want Test cricket to be taken away’

Warner pointed out how the previous generation cricketers didn’t have to play so much cricket to worry about balancing things out. He wrote: "You've got the greats of the game that have scored over 15,000 runs and over 10,000 runs, but they never had to balance the amount of cricket that's played now, particularly Twenty20s.

He added: "For myself it's about sacrificing some things to try and get myself an extra 50 Test matches and play the best cricket I can. To do that, you need to weigh up your options.

"I never want Test cricket to be taken away from me or hindered by exhaustion. I don't want anything clouding my mind or any regrets saying, 'if I didn't play this T20 series I might have been better'."

‘The schedule is taxing’

Warner did admit that the last four years, ever since he became a regular in all the three formats for his country, has taken a toll on him – both mentally and physically.

He said: "For the last four years I've been pretty much on the run with the international schedule and it does take a toll and coming up we've got the World Cup, a West Indies Tour, the Ashes, Bangladesh, the home summer, then away to New Zealand.

"The amount of flying we do, combined with the training, it's taxing. There has to come a point where I've got to be smarter about I balance my workloads."