Australia batting great David Warner's 15-year-long international career, dotted with glorious achievements and controversies in equal measure, has come to an anti-climactic end after Afghanistan beat Bangladesh, eliminating the former champions from the T20 World Cup at the Super 8 phase. (Full Coverage | More Cricket News)
Australia's hopes of making it to the semi-final were taken a hit thanks to the defeat to Afghanistan and then followed it up with a loss against India. Mitchell Marsh's side needed Bangladesh to beat Afghanistan but it wasn't to be and thus, brought curtains to Warner's illustrious international career.
The Aussie southpaw had already called it quits from the ODI arena as a two-time world champions (2015, 2023) whereas he hung up his boots during the Test series against Pakistan last summer.
His teammate and bowler Josh Hazlewood did hint at Warner's final appearance in Australian colours in the post-match press-conference.
"I guess we've had a little taste of it," Hazlewood said after the India game on Warner's exit. "So, it's sort of been a slow burn with our Test cricket and ODI cricket and now T20. So, life without him, we've sort of gotten used to it a little bit in New Zealand. Yeah, it's always different when you lose a player that's been there for so long. But we'll move on and push forward."
He retires as Australia's highest scorer and seventh-most prolific batter in the world in T20 format with 3,277 runs from 110 matches, at an average of 33.43 and strike rate of 142.47. He scored one hundred and 28 fifties in the shortest format.
From 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 also scored 6,932 runs from 161 ODI matches at an average of 45.30 with the help of 22 centuries and 33 half centuries.
Warner, who has 49 centuries across formats and close to 19,000 runs in international cricket, had acknowledged that his name will forever be linked to the sandpaper gate scandal that took place at Newlands, Cape Town during a Test match against South Africa in 2018.
Warner's involvement in the scandal in the Newlands Test, when Cameron Bancroft used sandpaper to scuff the ball earned him a one-year ban, the same punishment as that of the-then skipper Steven Smith. He was also banned for life from taking any leadership role in the Australian cricket setup.
Despite all the talk around Warner's retirement, there is no official announcement on his social media pages.
(With PTI inputs)
