David Warner is to rejoin Australia’s squad in England on Monday, a team spokesman said, as the controversial batsman eyes a recall for a third Test that the tourists must win to keep their Ashes hopes alive.
Warner was banned in the run-up to the opening match of the series after punching England batsman Joe Root in a Birmingham bar in June following Australia’s defeat by their arch-rivals in the Champions Trophy one-day tournament in June.
His subsequent lack of match practice saw the selectors send him out to join the Australia A side on their tour of Zimbabwe and South Africa.
That meant Warner missed the first two Tests of the five-match Ashes series, both of which Australia lost as they went down by 14 runs at Trent Bridge and then suffered a 347-run hammering at Lord’s.
Last week 26-year-old left-hander Warner, who can open the innings, made 193 against South Africa A in a drawn four-day match in Pretoria.
But the second innings saw umpires twice having to halt play as sledging involving Warner and South Africa A wicketkeeper Thami Tsolekile boiled over.