Former Australian cricketer Shane Watson has warned David Warner "you never know what's going to happen" over his retirement plans as the fallout from Mitchell Johnson's scathing criticism continues.
Prior to the Ashes in June, Warner flagged his intention to finish his Test career with a farewell at the SCG in January 2024.
"You've got to score runs. I've always said the [2024] World Cup would probably be my final game," Warner said ahead of the Ashes.
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"I probably owe it to myself and my family … If I can score runs here and continue to play back in Australia – I can definitely say I won't be playing that West Indies series.
"If I can get through this [WTC final and ensuing Ashes campaign] and make the Pakistan series I will definitely finish up then.
"I want to play that 2024 World Cup. It is something that is on the back of my mind. We've got a lot of cricket before that, and then I think it stops from February.
"So for me, then I'll have to play IPL, some of the other franchise leagues, and then get into that rhythm to play in June.
"There will be a bit of cricket around to play. Who knows? I might go back and play a Shield game for New South Wales."
Warner has come under fire from Johnson for putting a timeline on his Test retirement, fuelling major discussion around the opener's spot in the team.
"Does this really warrant a swansong, a last hurrah against Pakistan that was forecast a year in advance as if he was bigger than the game and the Australian cricket team?"," Johnson wrote in The West Australian.
Watson described Warner's comments as "interesting", having been dropped himself before making a call on his Test career.
"Dave put a stake in the ground a long way out which hasn't really been done before … that I can remember for the last 30 years of cricket where someone's said a year out Sydney's my place to finish," Watson said on the Willow Talk Cricket Podcast.
"Because you never know what's going to happen, form alone, whether you're dominating you get that opportunity.
" … You need to make sure you're scoring runs. Ricky Ponting would've loved the perfect send-off that he wanted as well and most players do, [but] sometimes you get a tap on the shoulder and you get no choice."
Australian wicket-keeper Alyssa Healy added she "couldn't live with that hanging over my head".
"You look at Meg Lanning recently, didn't really get to choose when she wanted to finish up, there's obviously other factors at play there but a lot of players don't get that option," she said.
"So if I am lucky enough to do it, I think you just wake up one day and go 'I don't want to do this anymore', and you go, 'See you later'.
"I wouldn't want that hanging over my head for 12 months, knowing the end is nigh and I've got to make runs to stay in the team, that'd be really uncomfortable."
Brad Haddin, a former teammate of Warner and Johnson, described the latter's column as "odd" and "left-field".
"I don't mind past players saying, 'OK, this is why I wouldn't have him in the team, this is what I'd look at'. It looked like a bit of an aggressive attack on Davey's personality, which I don't think you need," Haddin said.
"Yes, you can have an opinion on what you think the team should be, but I don't like when past players go really hard in a personal angle to the players and it felt a little bit like that to me."
One man that could replace Warner for the West Indies series is Cameron Bancroft.
The opener has been maligned since his role in the sandpaper saga resulted in him being banned, along with Steve Smith and Warner.
However, his form has made an irresistible case for selection, hitting 1,457 runs over the last two Sheffield Shield seasons. Bancroft was the leading run-scorer last season, scoring 945 with Daniel Drew second on 656. The opener is likely to take the honour again this season.
Watson noted, though, that selection isn't just down to statistics.
"That's a lot of runs, that's seriously knocking down the door from a numbers perspective, but that's the thing, in a cricket team environment it's not always just the numbers that are the reason why you get picked or you don't," he said.
"It's whether you've had an opportunity previously and how you went, how you blend into the team environment; all those different factors come in. It's subjective, it's not just the sheer numbers."
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