David Warner: The most prolific Australia opener, among the best at his peak
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 Jayaraman
31-Dec-2023
David Warner walks off after what is his last Test innings at the MCG • Getty Images
David 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 gig
Remarkably, 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.
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Better home than away
Warner 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.
The Ashes mixed-bag, and the Trans-Tasman high
Warner's Ashes record largely mirrors his overall record - good at home, mediocre away. In Australia he made 1237 runs at an average of 51.54. He crossed fifty ten times in just 26 innings in the home Ashes, including three hundreds. Playing away, he was half the batter he was at home - he made 936 runs at an average of 26.74. The 2019 Ashes in England was a forgettable one for Warner as he could manage just 95 runs from ten innings. Stuart Broad had the wood on him in that series, and subsequently, dismissing him seven times for 5 runs apiece.
Warner's best in England came early in 2015 when he made five fifties in nine innings in the Ashes series. An achievement worthy of note given how difficult it is to open in England. Only five other openers have made five or more fifty-plus scores in an Ashes series in England. Overall, Warner ended up being the third most prolific opener for Australia in terms of runs in the Ashes. He made 2168 runs and 19 fifty-plus scores. Only Mark Taylor and Bill Lawry made more runs than him as openers.
Warner's record against Australia's other traditional rival was exemplary. He made 1081 runs at an average of 67.56 against New Zealand including five hundreds from 19 innings. Three of them - including a 253 at the WACA - came in the 2015-16 Trans-Tasman Trophy when he made 592 runs at an average of 98.66. No Australia batter has scored more runs in a series of three or fewer matches.
Opening mainstay without a stable partner
It isn't often highlighted that Warner opened for Australia without a stable partner for long stretches of his career. He had 13 different opening partners over the course of his career. Talk to openers and they'll tell you the importance of walking out with the same partner time and again. Chris Rogers was Warner's most frequent partner having opened with him 41 times (Khawaja will equal that should he open with Warner twice at the SCG). The average number of innings Warner had with each of his partner was 15.5, and the runs he added was 661.38. Among Australia's six most prolific openers in terms of runs, the average runs Warner added with his partners was the lowest. And Warner was clearly not the weaker half. He averaged almost seven runs higher than his partners and scored 11 more centuries than them.