Australia coach Darren Lehmann has hinted that David Warner could
return to the team for this week's third Ashes Test with England at Old
Trafford.
Warner scored 193 for Australia 'A' in South Africa last week, after being sent there from England to gain some time in the middle.
Warner was suspended from the team in the run-up to the first Test at Trent Bridge for punching England batsman Joe Root in a Birmingham nightspot.
He was left out of the team in Nottingham, and again at Lord's with Lehmann instead sending him to Africa in order to get match practice.
After a couple of early failures, he hit a brilliant 193 against South Africa 'A' and he has now flown back to England to rejoin the Ashes squad.
Lehmann insists the batsman is "not a certainty" to play at Old Trafford, but admitted: "He got 193 and played well, did exactly what we wanted him to do.
"We want blokes to make hundreds, and he's ticked that box. We'll have to look at the wicket and what we come up with in the top six."
Lehmann defended the decision to leave struggling openers Chris Rogers and Shane Watson in London over the weekend rather than give them a run-out in the tour match with Sussex at Hove.
"They're doing some technical work and that's fine," he said. "We have done enough talking, full stop. We have to score some runs. We can formulate an attack to get 20 wickets but we need to make runs."
Warner scored 193 for Australia 'A' in South Africa last week, after being sent there from England to gain some time in the middle.
Warner was suspended from the team in the run-up to the first Test at Trent Bridge for punching England batsman Joe Root in a Birmingham nightspot.
He was left out of the team in Nottingham, and again at Lord's with Lehmann instead sending him to Africa in order to get match practice.
After a couple of early failures, he hit a brilliant 193 against South Africa 'A' and he has now flown back to England to rejoin the Ashes squad.
Lehmann insists the batsman is "not a certainty" to play at Old Trafford, but admitted: "He got 193 and played well, did exactly what we wanted him to do.
"We want blokes to make hundreds, and he's ticked that box. We'll have to look at the wicket and what we come up with in the top six."
Lehmann defended the decision to leave struggling openers Chris Rogers and Shane Watson in London over the weekend rather than give them a run-out in the tour match with Sussex at Hove.
"They're doing some technical work and that's fine," he said. "We have done enough talking, full stop. We have to score some runs. We can formulate an attack to get 20 wickets but we need to make runs."