BOMBAI: If David Warner had to write his own script, he would have loved to walk away from the game brandishing the ICC T20 World Cup trophy in his hands. In his mind, the dashing Australian opener must have designated the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown, Barbados on June 29 as the venue and date for his swan song.
Of course, not every scenario goes as planned – not even for a modern all-format star from Australia’s all-conquering side.
A blinder from Rohit Sharma to beat Australia and Afghanistan’s subsequent victory against Bangladesh at St. Vincent’s dashed Warner’s hopes of bowing out in a blaze of glory. He already retired from Tests last year and one-day internationals earlier this year.
Warner’s final innings will now be six off six balls in the defeat against India. He left the field, not knowing if it was indeed his last match. With Australia’s qualification hopes in doubt, there was no guard of honor or standing ovation.
Regardless of the quiet end to his career, 15 years of international career were very rewarding for an exciting hitter. Warner had long signaled that this T20 World Cup would be his last tournament and T20 cricket would be a suitable way to sign on. He is a product of the format, first making his name as a T20 specialist. He announced his arrival on the international scene with a spectacular 89/43 balls on his T20I debut against South Africa in 2009, becoming the first man since 1877 to debut for Australia before playing in first-class cricket. As his Delhi Daredevils captain Virender Sehwag predicted, Warner has also become a very effective Test player.
Warner, who has 49 centuries in all formats and nearly 19,000 runs in international cricket, retires as Australia’s top scorer in the T20 format with 3,277 runs in 110 matches, at an average of 33.43 and a strike rate of 142.47. Across 112 Tests, he has scored 8,786 runs at an average of 44.59 with 26 hundreds and 37 fifties between 2011 and 2024. He has also scored 6,932 runs in 161 ODI matches at an average of 45.30 with the assist of 22 centuries and 33 half-centuries. . All-format players are rarely of better quality.
Former skipper Ricky Ponting paid glowing tribute to the retired opener. “We know he retired this summer from Test cricket, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a guy who has had as big an impact on all three forms of Australian cricket as Warner,” Ponting said during the ICC’s Digital Daily broadcast.
Teammate Josh Hazlewood admitted Warner’s absence from the dressing room would be difficult to fill. “We will certainly miss him in the group, on the pitch and off the pitch. (An) incredible career in all formats,” he said. “It’s been kind of a slow burn with Test cricket, and ODI cricket and now T20. So, life without him, you kind of got used to it a little bit… it’s always different when you lose a player who’s been there for so long.
But for all his on-field exploits, Warner’s career has also been peppered with controversy in equal measure. His batting exploits in all three formats for Australia will forever be overshadowed by his role as the main protagonist in the 2018 Newlands ball-tampering scandal.
He was accused of being the man who asked teammate Cameron Bancroft to use sandpaper on the ball during the infamous Cape Town Test against South Africa. Suspended from all cricket for a year, Warner was also banned for life from taking on any managerial role in the Australian set-up.
“I think it will be inevitable that when people talk about me in 20 or 30 years, there will still be this sandpaper scandal,” he told North Sound last week, before the shock of Super 8 between Australia and Bangladesh. “But for me, if they are true cricket tragics and they love cricket, (and) my closest supporters, they will always see me as that cricketer – someone who tried to change the game.”
In June 2013, he was also suspended and fined for punching England’s Joe Root in a Birmingham bar on the eve of the Ashes.
Warner has left the door open for a return for next year’s Champions Trophy but, for now, it looks like an outside bet.