Australia v Pakistan: Mitchell Johnson questions David Warner's 'hero's send-off'

Mitchell Johnson and David Warner spent four years playing together in the Australia Test team, from 2011 to 2015

Mitchell Johnson has questioned whether former Australia team-mate David Warner should be given a "hero's send-off" in the Test series against Pakistan.

Warner, 37, has been named in Australia's squad for the first Test, which starts on 14 December in Perth.

Johnson pointed to Warner's poor recent form and his central role in 2018's 'sandpapergate' ball-tampering scandal.

The former fast bowler queried why Warner appeared to have been able to "nominate his own retirement date".

Former Australia Test captain Tim Paine said Johnson had made "great points" about Warner's form, but Australia batter Usman Khawaja defended Warner, saying "no-one's perfect".

• Australia v Pakistan - schedule

Warner indicated in June that the three-Test Pakistan series, which ends at his home ground in Sydney, would be the last in a 12-year Test career.

The opener has scored 8,487 runs at an average of 44.43 in 109 Tests, but he has averaged less than 30 over the past two years and has made only one Test century since 2021.

"As we prepare for David Warner's farewell series, can somebody please tell me why?" wrote Johnson in The West Australian.

"Why a struggling Test opener gets to nominate his own retirement date. And why a player at the centre of one of the biggest scandals in Australian cricket history warrants a hero's send-off?

"It's been five years and David Warner has still never really owned the ball-tampering scandal."

'Warner and Smith are heroes' - Khawaja

Johnson took 313 wickets in an eight-year Test career that ended in 2015, three years before the ball-tampering scandal that rocked the Australia squad.

Warner was was banned from cricket for a year and stripped of the vice-captaincy for his part in the ball being rubbed with sandpaper on the tour of South Africa.

Captain Steve Smith also received a year-long suspension and Cameron Bancroft was banned for nine months.

Smith has since re-established himself as a key member of the team and is also part of the 14-man squad to face Pakistan.

"Warner and Smith are heroes in my mind," Khawaja said.

"They missed a year of cricket through dark times. No-one's perfect. Mitchell Johnson's not perfect.

"What they have done for the game - how they have grown the game - far outweighs anything else they have done.

"To say Dave Warner or anyone else involved in sandpaper[gate] is not a hero. I strongly disagree because they have paid their dues. A year out of cricket is a long time."

'He's in our best 11 players'

Australia chief selector George Bailey said Warner warranted his place but would not be drawn further on Johnson's comments.

"Ultimately we still think he's in our best 11 players to win the first Test," Bailey said.

Paine, who stood down as captain in 2021, said: "David hasn't been playing well and would other people be getting the run he's getting now? Probably not.

"But, in my opinion, he's got credits in the bank because he is one of the all-time greats.

"You can read between the lines that him (Johnson) and Davey don't get along."

The second Test in Melbourne starts on 26 December and the third at the SCG on 3 January.

Australia squad for first Test: Pat Cummins (capt), David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Travis Head, Mitchell Marsh, Alex Carey (wk), Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Boland, Cameron Green, Lance Morris.