You didn’t have to like David Warner. But you always had to watch him. From Adelaide to Dhaka, Boxing Day to Cape Town (with a 2013 detour via Birmingham’s Walkabout bar if you like), Warner has provided some of Australian cricket’s most memorable, emotional and infamous moments of the past 13 years.
As the curtain comes down on an incredible Test career, the length and breadth of his finest moments with bat and ball in the longest format make for one hell of a tale.
The first ton: 123* against New Zealand in 2011
Warner arrived for his second Test in Hobart still regarded by many as a T20 slogger and little more.
He left with a maiden Test century and a rearguard, five-hour, thoroughly un-Warner knock that fell just eight runs shy of steering Australia to a famous one-wicket win.
A wearing Tasmanian pitch saw Australian and Kiwi seamers in their element. Team totals of 150 and 136 in the first innings said it all.
Warner’s undefeated 123 in Australia’s chase was just the third time an Australian had carried his bat in the fourth innings, and featured 14 boundaries – plenty punched down the ground and through the covers against a swinging ball.
A 34-run last-wicket stand with Nathan Lyon almost got Australia home pursuing 241, but Warner had already announced himself as a Test opener.
Triple figures from 69 balls: 180 against India in 2012
An Indian line-up featuring Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman and Virat Kohli was rolled for 161 on an encouraging day one WACA pitch in 2012.
Cause for circumspection perhaps? Or time for what was then the equal-fourth fastest century of all-time.
Warner in demolition mode at the WACA against India in 2012.Credit: Getty
Warner’s 13 fours and three sixes before stumps saw him raise his hundred in a session in spectacular fashion, dropping to one knee and plonking the ball 10 rows back over long-on. He pushed on to 180 the next morning – a total India couldn’t pass in either innings.
Warner on Warne: A maiden Test wicket in 2012
David Warner’s impressive Shane Warne impressionCredit: Twitter
‘Could young Warner be our new Warnie?’ The Courier Mail’s question in 2009 is a strong contender as the peak of Australia’s post-Warne obsession. But there’s always been more than a passing resemblance between the pair at the bowling crease.
The slow, purposeful trundle, surprisingly agile leap into action, right arm whirling away high and true, left leveraging real power like an old poker machine handle to begin the follow-through: it’s all there.
And on a 2012 tour of the West Indies, Warner had the first of his four Test wickets – Kirk Edwards caught and bowled for 61 in what proved a tense three-wicket win.
Warner also bagged the prized wicket of South African Hashim Amla later that year, but he hasn’t been sighted with ball in hand since 2016.
Twin tons against South Africa in 2014
Fresh from his first overseas hundred at the start of an enthralling series, Warner demolished an imposing South African attack in Cape Town, where the world No.1 ranking was up for grabs.
Dale Steyn was pumped back over his head for six as he, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel went at six an over in the Test’s opening session, Warner finishing with a blistering 135 to set up Australia’s victory.
His second-innings 145 – again at almost a run a ball – ensured the visitors had enough time to bowl South Africa out, one of AB de Villiers’ famous stonewalling efforts (43 from 228 balls) just falling short of the draw after tea on day five.
Emotional scenes in Adelaide with Phil Hughes – Australian Test player No. 408 – never far from memory. Credit: Getty
In memory of Hughes: 145 and 102 against India in 2014
It was Warner who rode on the medicab with Phillip Hughes and slept at St Vincent’s Hospital after the Australian opener was struck by a bouncer at the SCG in 2014. Just 12 days after his great mate’s passing, Warner batted like a man possessed in Adelaide, thrashing his first 28 runs from just 13 balls.
On 63 – the score at which Hughes was felled – Warner looked to the heavens, before bringing up his hundred from 106 balls.
Few days in Australian cricket have matched the emotions on show from Warner and captain Michael Clarke – who scored a stirring, hobbling century of his own to honour Hughes despite a debilitating back injury. Warner added a crucial 102 in the second innings before Nathan Lyon spun the home side to a 48-run victory.
The subcontinent breakthrough: 112 against Bangladesh in 2017
Warner’s overseas record is regularly cited – and often quite fairly – by his detractors.
But one of his finest hours came to arguably the least fanfare of his career, on a tour of Bangladesh shuffled around the cricketing calendar by security fears and threatened by a pay dispute.
Warner’s best knock against spin on the subcontinent yielded a stunning 112 from just 121 balls in the fourth innings at Dhaka.
His blazing effort on a truly treacherous deck – 36 of 40 wickets fell to spin – should have been enough for the tourists to chase the 265 required, but none of Warner’s teammates could muster more than 37 as Bangladesh claimed their first Test win over Australia. Warner followed up with a patient 123 as Australia saved face in the next Test. It was his last overseas century.
Warner described this hundred against Bangladesh in 2017 as his best Test innings to that point.Credit: Getty
His highest score: 335* against Pakistan in 2019
Warner barely troubled the scorers in England a few months earlier – averaging 9.5 across five Ashes Tests – but he clocked up nine hours and almost 21 kilometres at the crease in Adelaide.
Given the pace Warner scored at – plundering 39 boundaries and one six for a strike-rate of 80 against hapless Pakistan – Brian Lara’s high-water mark of 400* came into view before tea on day two.
Australia’s declaration saw Warner settle instead for passing the 334 scored by Donald Bradman (1930) and Mark Taylor (1998), second only to the 380 of fellow opener Matthew Hayden (2003 v Zimbabwe).
Roar power: Warner celebrates his 300th run in Adelaide.Credit: Getty Images
Eighty-eight catches and an ever present danger
For all of Warner’s explosiveness with the willow, he brings an ample serve of it in the field as well and has long been regarded as one of the best catchers of his generation.
Warner’s prowess in shortened formats – either prowling the inner circle or boundary rope – has been matched at Test level with a series of reflex grabs in the slips cordon or in close.
His 88 catches (and still counting) rank 14th on Australia’s all-time list and the man’s versatility stands out with a quick ‘David Warner classic catches’ Google search – leg slip, short mid-wicket and silly point all feature.
Back to the wall on Boxing Day: 200 against South Africa in 2022
One of the most dramatic knocks of Warner’s career (which is really saying something) came with his future on the line in his 100th Test.
Against a strong Proteas attack, weathering a 10-month leadership ban saga and without a Test century in three years, Warner bunkered down in sweltering, 36-degree Melbourne heat.
Six hours later he could barely stand, his last act the trademark leap to celebrate a monumental double hundred before medical staff had to help him from the field.
Pickle juice didn’t help in the slightest when it came to the constant cramps of Warner’s last two hours at the crease. But a pointed kiss blown towards the MCG press box after his drought-breaking hundred was a tad sweeter.
An exhausted and cramping Warner had to be helped from the field after reaching his double century.Credit: AP
‘Shush’: 164 against Pakistan in 2023
Warner’s latest, and possibly last, Test ton was accompanied by a gloved finger to the lips and a proverbial up yours to his critics upon reaching triple-figures.
Few could begrudge Warner given the blistering attack launched on him by former teammate Mitchell Johnson leading into the opener’s last Australian summer.
Lost among Johnson’s accusations of “arrogance and disrespect” from Warner toward Australian cricket were the sheer facts: he went into the Perth Test with just one century from his last 44 innings and an Ashes series average of 22.
Most would’ve played this ball through the covers. Not David Warner.
Pakistan again bore the brunt of Warner’s retort – never more audacious than when Shaheen Shah Afridi, one of the best young fast bowlers in the world, sent a ball down outside off stump at 140km/h.
Warner flicked it over fine leg for six.
