'That's when I'll know': Warner flags retirement warning sign

David Warner knows the tell-tale sign that will signal to him it's time to retire from Test cricket, but it won't come before he tackles unfinished business in India and England as Australia embark on an epoch-defining 2023.

Almost fresh from his Johnny Mullagh Medal-winning double-century in the cauldron of the second NRMA Insurance Test, Warner confirmed he was pivotal to the plans Australia are already forming for their four-Test campaign in India in February-March and the Ashes defence of June-July.

In the wake of yesterday's thrashing of South Africa by an innings and 182 runs at the MCG, Australia can also guarantee themselves a place in the ICC World Test Championship Final to be staged in London next June with a win in the South Africa series finale at the SCG next week.

Warner has been told by selection panel chair George Bailey and national men's team coach Andrew McDonald they want him opening the batting next year even though the left-hander averages 24 in India where Australia's most recent series win was 2004, and 26 in the UK where the drought is even longer (2001).

But having emphatically proved age has not diminished the unique skills set that has him regarded as one of the most destructive and influential openers the Test game has seen, Warner claims it's the motivation provided by those upcoming challenges that ensures he'll keep playing.

And he also believes it won't be statistical returns or advancing years that will be the final arbiter in when he chooses to walk away from international cricket.

"People keep telling me 'you'll know when it's time', and I haven't really felt that at all yet," Warner said after Australia celebrated their first Test series win over South Africa at home since 2005-06.

"I'm still enjoying it, and I still know what energy I can bring to the team.

"I think once I start losing that spark and energy around training, and taking the mickey out of people and playing some jokes and pranks here and there, that's when I'll know it's time.

"The extra motivation for me is winning in India, and completely winning a series in England.

"I've been told by the coach and the selectors they would like me to be there.

"I'm in as happy place as I have been for a long time now."

Warner concedes he wasn't in such a satisfied state at the start of the current Test summer, when his frustration over the hearing process to have his lifetime leadership ban overturned coincided with a string of low scores and self-inflicted dismissals.

The leadership issue that Warner claims began simmering immediately prior to the first NRMA Insurance Test against West Indies in Perth boiled over on the eve of the second match in Adelaide when the former vice-captain announced he was abandoning the proposed hearing.

While he didn't definitively cite the matter for his return of 105 runs from six Test innings leading into Boxing Day, Warner noted the timing of revelations about the independent panel's wish to have testimony heard publicly was an unnecessary distraction heading into the Test summer.

"It takes its toll immensely," Warner said today. "I get a message a night before a Test … and then day two, waking up and a lawyer texts about something that has to be spoken about.

"These are things that you don't want on your mind when you're going to training, or go to the game.

"It was just about trying to get in the right frame of mind, and I just couldn't because it was difficult.

"But that's all parked now, I don't have to worry about that, I'm not even thinking about it.

"The focus is now towards Sydney, and getting myself right for BBL."

Warner rated his 200 at the MCG – in which he batted across three days and was forced to retire injured due to full-body cramps suffered in stifling 38C heat – as perhaps the finest knock of his 11-year Test career given the conditions in which it was played, and the quality of bowling he faced.

He had previously ranked his second Test ton, famously reached in a session against India at the WACA Ground in 2012, as the benchmark but concedes this week's effort might just have it covered.

"I would say the way I went about it, with that pressure behind me, it would have to be one of my best innings for sure," he said.

Having attributed that stunning success to a change in mindset, whereby he abandoned an admitted focus on defence and instead returned to the counter-punching aggression that served him so well in the past, Warner will now carry that approach into the upcoming battles with India and England.

It's unlikely any member of the Australia touring party for the four-Test India campaign will boast better knowledge of subcontinent conditions than Warner given his vast IPL experience, and he concedes past results indicate the odds are stacked against the visitors.

But he points to the team's most recent Test visit there in 2017 – particularly the final Test at Dharamsala, when a second-innings batting collapse cost them the rare chance of a series win – and believes much has changed over the intervening six years.

In particular, Australia's performances in Pakistan (where they won 1-0) and Sri Lanka (1-1 draw) over the past 12 months show the players – most of whom are expected to figure in the India series – have developed an understanding of how best to approach the vastly different subcontinent conditions.

And it's Warner, and his fellow top-order batters, who hold the key to securing Australia's second series win in India over the past 50 years according to the 100-Test veteran.

"It's going to be interesting," Warner said. "We know what we're going to prepare for, they're going to be turning wickets.

"There's going to be times when it's going to challenging over there, but it's about how our batters can build and bat big like we did in Pakistan.

"I think with the ball, we're going to do a fantastic job – we've got a world-class spinner in Nathan Lyon and we're going to have to potentially think about playing two spinners.

"For us as a batting group … we're going to have to find a way and a method like we did in in Pakistan to get through that.

"Obviously in Sri Lanka we had good methods and we saw in that first Test in Galle, everyone was playing reverse sweeps and sweeps, everyone had a method and they stuck to it.

"Moving to India, it's going to be a batters' battle I reckon."

Men's NRMA Insurance Test Series v South Africa

First Test: Australia won by six wickets

Second Test: Australia won by an innings and 182 runs

Jan 4-8: Third Test, SCG, 10.30am AEDT

Australia squad: Pat Cummins (c), Ashton Agar, Scott Boland, Alex Carey, Marcus Harris, Josh Hazlewood, Travis Head, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Lance Morris, Nathan Lyon, Matthew Renshaw, Steve Smith, David Warner

South Africa squad: Dean Elgar (c), Temba Bavuma, Gerald Coetzee, Theunis de Bruyn, Sarel Eree, Simon Harmer, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Heinrich Klaasen, Lungi Ngidi, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Rassie van der Dussen, Kyle Verreynne, Lizaad Williams, Khaya Zondo

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