David Warner
David Warner (Credits: X)

David Warner, on Saturday (January 6), ended his Test career in a fairytale manner. In his final Test knock, the left-handed batsman starred with the bat, scoring a fine half-century to help Australia thrash Pakistan by eight wickets and clean sweep the three-match series.

Set a target of 130, Australia were off to a disastrous start. Their opener Usman Khawaja was dismissed by Sajid Khan for a duck. However, David Warner once again came to Australia’s rescue and scored a brilliant fifty for one last time in Tests.

He and Marnus Labuschagne added 119 runs for the second wicket before Sajid Khan dismissed him for 57. David Warner reviewed the on-field decision but was given out lbw by the third umpire too. While his dreams of hitting the winning runs in his final Test in front of his home crowd were shattered, he received a heartwarming standing ovation from the fans.

As he walked off the field for one last time in Tests, the Pakistan players mobbed him to shake his hands before waving his bat bat to a raucous ovation from the crowd.  The Australia great also came up with a heartwarming gesture while making his way out of the field as he handed his helmet and batting gloves to a young fan at the players’ gate.

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David Warner’s Test career in numbers:

David Warner has ended his Test career as Australia’s most successful opener in red-ball cricket. No opener has scored more runs than him in Tests for Australia. The southpaw made his debut in Tests in 2011 and has finished it after playing 112 games.

In those 112 games, he has scored a record 8786 runs with the help of 26 centuries and 37 half-centuries. His highest-score in Tests is 335 not out that came against Pakistan during the Adelaide Test in 2019. Overall, he is fifth in the list of Australians with most runs in Tests behind Ricky Ponting, Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Steve Smith.

Earlier this month, he also announced his retirement from ODIs. In the 50-over format, he scored 6932 runs in 161 games with the help of 22 centuries and 33 half-centuries. He won two ODI World Cups with Australia with the second one coming in India last year. He was Australia’s highest run-scorer in the 2023 ODI World Cup.