David Warner has invited those vying to become his long-term replacement at the top of the Australian men’s Test order to consult him for advice and declared after making eyebrow-raising comments about Cameron Bancroft, “I’m going to call it how it is”.

The retired Test opener exposed a flaw in the technique of Bancroft, who’s hoping to open with Usman Khawaja against India this summer.

“With Cameron Bancroft, his foot is still out to point,” Warner said on his Fox Cricket commentary debut during Australia’s one-day clash with Pakistan on Monday.

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“If someone is bowling 140, 145km/h, he is still going to make the same mistakes. In my eyes, it’s about his front foot being pointed out to point, and when there is faster air speed, so the bowlers are bowling faster, he is going to get rolled through lbw or get caught in the slips cordon. He had that trouble when playing for Australia.”

While it’s likely that Australia’s selectors had already been aware of Bancroft’s technical flaw pointed out by Warner in commentary, it may have been fresh intel for India’s bowling attack ahead of the five-Test series beginning in Perth on November 22.

Making Warner’s comments about Bancroft particularly interesting is the pair are teammates at the Sydney Thunder.

The Big Bash League franchise revealed on Wednesday that Warner will captain the men’s team in this summer’s tournament — an announcement made in the wake of Cricket Australia lifting his lifetime leadership ban six years on from the Newlands ball-tampering scandal.

“We [Warner and Bancroft] are in the team together, it is Big Bash, it’s white-ball cricket, it’s not the Australian Test team and I’m not playing in the Shield team with him,” Warner said on 2GB’s Wide World of Sports radio.

“My opinion is that.

“If he wants to have those conversations with me about helping him … then he’s happy to have those conversations.

“That goes with Marcus Harris and a lot of the other guys. I’ve been speaking to Sam Konstas about the occasions and the pressure that might be on him in these Australia A games. He reached out to me and I think that’s great. I think that’s what we’re there for. We played the game for a long time.”

Warner said he reached out to many cricket greats throughout his international career, including Ricky Ponting and Adam Gilchrist, “to get the understanding of certain things, certain situations and conditions”.

“That’s what it’s about; it’s about trying to build yourself and get better yourself,” Warner said.

The 38-year-old added: “I’m going to call it how it is”.

Bancroft was the best-performing batter in the 2022-23 Sheffield Shield season and was only topped by Tasmania’s Beau Webster in the last Shield tournament.

The West Australian amassed 945 runs at 59.06 in the 2022-23 season, and 778 runs at 48.62 in the Shield last summer.

But he’s hindered his hopes of a Test recall in his past six first-class innings, registering scores of 0, 0, 8, 2, 0 and 16.

Australia A will meet India A in an MCG tour match beginning on Thursday.

Nathan McSweeney, on the back of his unbeaten 88 in the first tour match, will shift from the middle order to the top of the order in his push for a Test debut, according to The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.