Australia skipper Pat Cummins has urged David Warner to twist his arm in his farewell Test match as they prepare to face Pakistan in Sydney. Warner, set to call time on his illustrious career will get a fitting farewell when he takes the field in his final career Test match in his hometown. Ahead of the match, Cummins has urged Warner to flex his arm at the Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG) while Nathan Lyon remains the only designated spin option in the Playing XI. Australia have named an unchanged Playing XI for the third Test in SCG which starts on Wednesday (Jan 3).

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Warner to flex his arm?

“Maybe some leg spin? Take the last wicket of the game or something, out of the rough. I only just thought of it then,” Pat Cummins laughed in the pre-match press conference.

Not since 2016 has Warner bowled in the Test format, but has been urged by his skipper to take the role. Notably, Warner has four wickets in the Test format adding to his 26 hundreds in the red-ball format. His list of wickets includes veteran South African batter Hashim Amla, Darren Bravo, Kirk Edwards and Fidel Edwards.

Having announced his retirement from the longer format for the national side Warner’s inclusion in the side was inevitable for the SCG Test. He had a superb start to the three-match series having scored 164 at the Perth Stadium leading the hosts to a massive win.

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The left-hand batter will go down as one of the greats of the game having amassed 8695 runs in Test format from 111 matches. In his illustrious career, he scored 26 Test hundreds, eighth-highest for the Aussies in the format.

Warner on Monday also waved goodbye to the ODI format which will see him represent the nation in only the T20I format. He is also reported to say goodbye to the T20I format after the World Cup in June in West Indies and USA.

Australia XI for New Year’s Test

David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Pat Cummins (captain), Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc

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