Australia has a replacement line-up in Jake Fraser-McGurk,
but Warner leaves "really big shoes" to fill.
Ricky Ponting believes David Warner will be missed for more than just his runs
when he retires from international cricket at the end of the T20 World Cup 2024.
Warner's stage-by-stage retirement from Australia will be complete when the
team's season concludes in the West Indies, barring an implausible return in
next year's Champions Trophy, following his farewell Test against Pakistan at
the SCG earlier this year.
He is heading into the World Cup off the back of a poor and injury-plagued IPL
season with the Delhi Capitals, where Ponting was the head coach, which, along
with Jake Fraser-McGurk's scorching form, was enough to get his spot talked
about even though he was never going to be left out. Warner hit a fast
half-century in the warm-up match against Namibia and is expected to regain
form with another global title on the line.
If Australia wins trophies in all three formats simultaneously, Warner will
be one of only four players to have appeared in all three finals, joining Pat
Cummins, Mitchell Starc, and Travis Head.
"He's the type of person you want on your team,
especially in big tournaments like World Cups," Ponting told ESPNcricinfo
from New York. "And he's simply one of those natural winners. He is driven
to succeed in all he does. This is evident in his attitude and approach to
cricket on the pitch. So we'll miss more than just runs when Warner finally
leaves. The depth of Australian cricket may allow someone to step in
and fill that hole.
In terms of replacing Warner, Ponting was convinced that Fraser-McGurk, a
traveling reserve during the World Cup, would quickly slot in at the top of the
lineup.
"There is no doubt that it will be a very large set of
shoes to fill." They have a lot of depth there. I'd be amazed if he
[Fraser-McGurk] doesn't go right into the T20 team after David is done. In
fact, Jake made his Australian debut in one-day cricket last summer. This year,
I was also fortunate to coach him with the Delhi Capitals. He's quite
talented."
In terms of the 15 players on assignment for Australia's T20 World Cup, which
begins against Oman on Wednesday night, Ponting believes they can do something
"very special" by combining three championships across formats.
"It's a really good group of players and it's starting to get spoken about a little bit more," he stated. "Certainly, even internally, you hear a lot of the players in these current teams [are] actually recognising and talking about how lucky they are and what a special team that they know that they are playing in."When you're in a group like that, it's critical to make every post a winner. So they have an opportunity here in the T20 World Cup to do something very special. And I'm confident they'll go to any length to give themselves the best chance of success. They have some extremely seasoned players on their side.
"They have a few leaders on the team as well. Mitchell Marsh is the captain of this team, and Pat Cummins is the one-day and Test captain, Pat has just completed a successful captaincy campaign with the Sunrisers [Hyderabad] in the IPL. So they have a lot of bases covered, and they won't want to pass up this opportunity because it could be the last World Cup that a number of these players participate in."
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