David Warner will bow out of Tests as one of the best openers to have played for Australia, and perhaps the best opener of his era
Shiva Jayaraman31-Dec-2023David Warner will end his Test career as the fifth most prolific batter for Australia. With one Test left in his career, he’s scored 8695 runs at an average of 44.58. No opener has scored more runs for Australia in Tests than Warner. Warner went past Matthew Hayden’s 8625 runs for Australia in his penultimate Test at the MCG. Hayden is the only Australia opener to score more Test hundreds than Warner’s 26.For someone who was in danger of being straight-jacketed as a white-ball specialist in the early days of his career, Warner finishes with a handsome record in Tests: he is the fourth most prolific opener ever. Only Alastair Cook, Sunil Gavaskar and Graeme Smith have made more runs in Tests as an opener. Australia fast-tracked Warner to T20Is – he made his debut even before he had played first-class cricket – because of his attacking style at the domestic level. Warner brought that style to his Test match batting as well, striking at 70.31 in the format. Among 35 batters to score 8000 or more Test runs, and those for whom strike-rate data is complete, only Virender Sehwag had a higher strike-rate.The best at a tough gigRemarkably, despite scoring at that clip Warner has been more enduring than any other opener in an era that has been largely difficult for openers. Since Warner’s debut, only seven other openers have survived long enough to score at least 3000 Test runs. Cook, who was an established opener for England long before Warner started, is the next most prolific opener with 6555 runs since Warner’s debut. Warner’s average of 45.08 is also easily higher than any of the above seven batters. With a lower cut-off of 2000 runs only Usman Khawaja and Rohit Sharma average higher than Warner.Warner also hit more hundreds than any other opener during his career. Warner’s 26 hundreds are ten more than Dimuth Karunaratne’s, who is the next-most prolific opener in terms of hundreds. Openers from New Zealand (22) and West Indies (18) and Bangladesh (12) have collectively hit fewer Test hundreds than Warner.ESPNcricinfo LtdBetter home than awayWarner was undoubtedly a better batter at home than he was away on tour. He scored 5336 runs as an opener at an average of 58.63. Among 21 openers to have scored 3000 or more runs at home, none average higher than Warner. The next best is Len Hutton, whose 3885 runs as an opener in England came at an average of 57.98. Overall, Warner has scored 5347 runs in Australia at an average of 58.11. He made 3348 runs on away tours at an average of 32.50.Not that Warner didn’t have his highs playing outside Australia: in the 2013-14 series in South Africa, he made 543 runs at an average of 90.50 with three centuries and two fifties in six innings. Among visiting batters, only Neil Harvey has made more runs at a better average than Warner in a Test series in South Africa. Harvey made 660 runs at 132.0 in eight innings in 1949-50. Ken Barrington is the only other visiting batter to score 500 runs in a series in South Africa at a better average. Best phase That South Africa tour came at the beginning of Warner’s best phase in Test cricket, which started with the Ashes hundred at the Gabba in 2013-14. From that Ashes series to end of the home season in 2015-16, Warner wasn’t just the best opener at the Test level but was also among the top batters. He scored 3066 runs at an average of 62.57 and made those runs at a strike rate of 81.49 in 27 Tests in that period. No batter scored more runs in Tests than Warner during this time. Among 76 batters to have played at least 20 innings in that period, Warner’s average of 62.57 was the fourth-best, only behind Kane Williamson, Steven Smith and Angelo Mathews, who was ahead of Warner by the smallest of fractions.The Gabba hundred in the 2013-14 Ashes would be the first of the 13 hundreds he would make in a span of just 50 Test innings. That is as prolific a streak as any of the currently active batters have had. Steven Smith and Virat Kohli are the only other currently active batters to make 13 centuries in any span of successive 50 Test innings. Warner accumulated 3017 runs at an average 62.90. Apart from Warner, only four batters with active Test careers scored 3000 or more runs over 50 successive innings – Virat Kohli, Steven Smith, Kane Williamson and Marnus Labuschagne. At his peak Warner rubbed shoulders with the best batters of this era.