David Warner in race against time to be fit for New Zealand series

Warner is yet to recover from the thumb injury he suffered against England

David Warner has revealed that he is yet to fully recover from the thumb injury he suffered during the ODI series against England, cricket.com.au reports. The Australian opening batsman added that he’s desperate to play in the Sheffield Shield tournament in order to assess his recovery, a view which was shared by the national team coach, Darren Lehmann.

The Australian vice-captain broke the thumb on his left hand after getting hit by a delivery from Steven Finn at Lord's on September 5 and revealed that a visit to the doctor last week had confirmed that the bone was still broken.

"I saw the surgeon at the four-week mark, which was last Friday," Warner said today. "I had an x-ray and it was still broken. He said generally around the six-week mark - I'm coming up to five weeks at the moment - generally it would be healed. I'll have a follow-up x-ray this Friday and then if all goes well I'll be having a hit (in the nets) on Monday."

Australian coach Darren Lehmann had stated that Warner would, in all probability, have to play in New South Wales’ opening Sheffield Shield clash against South Australia from October 28-31, to be in contention for selection for the opening Test against New Zealand which begins from November 5.

"I'm pretty sure he'd have to play. If he's not going to play that he's probably not going to be fit enough (for the first Test),” Lehmann said, as reported by cricket.com.au. "Again, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it but all signs are he's going to play."

Warner, who revealed that he has not had a chat with the selectors regarding the injury status, fully understands Lehmann’s stand and is fully focussed on being fit in time for the domestic encounter.

“I probably can, but I haven't spoken to selectors about that," he said. "But my goal is to play that Shield game, I want to play that Shield game to have a hit because I don't think I'll be able to get out here and play any of the last couple of games for the Matador Cup.”

Warner dismissed questions whether a single game would be enough to get him back into the groove after a lengthy injury lay-off and feels the enforced break from cricket has helped him freshen up mentally.

"I think eight years on the road playing a lot of cricket, you don't lose that (ability) overnight. You're only one or two hits away in the nets, an hour off getting back to what you can do. But obviously batting against bowlers is going to be the key. I'm never nervous," Warner said.

“I think this four to six-week break mentally (has) freshened me up and I think it's going to put me in good stead for the summer.”