David Warner had one of the most memorable debuts in international cricket when he became the first Australian cricketer in 132 years to be selected for a national team in any format without experience in first-class cricket. Warner is a left-handed opening batsman and former captain of the national side in ODI and T20I cricket.
Known around the world as one of the most aggressive top-order batsmen, David Warner has destroyed bowling attacks over the years. He has been the vice-captain of the Test and ODI national team between 2015 and 2018. Warner has been part of a fair share of controversies, the ball-tampering incident in 2018 is the biggest of them.
Warner has achieved the rare feat of scoring hundreds in each innings of a Test match thrice. He first did that against the Proteas in March 2014 (135 & 145) and then against India at the Adelaide Oval in 2014, hammering 145 & 102 respectively. The southpaw repeated it in the following summer against New Zealand at the Gabba, where he racked up scores of 163 & 116.
2nd most all-format 100s for Australia- 43 in 410 innings.
10th most runs in a Test innings- 335* vs Pakistan in 2019- and the 5th highest by an opener.
2nd highest individual Test score by an Australian- 335*
One of the 5 players to score a 100 in consecutive innings of a Test thrice.
One of the 7 batsmen to score 6 consecutive 50+ scores in Tests. He achieved it during the 2014 tour of South Africa. His scores read: 115, 70, 66, 135, 145, 133.
2nd most number of 150+ scores in ODIs- 6.
4th fastest to 5000 ODI runs (115 innings) & 6th fastest to 4000 runs (93 innings).
Highest percentage of runs in a completed ODI innings- 94/141 (66.66%) for Australia vs Zimbabwe in September 2022.
One of the 2 Australian batters to smash 600+ runs in a single edition of a 50-over WC- 647 runs @ 71.88/89.36 in 2019.
2nd most number of ODI tons in a single year: 7 in 2016.
7th most runs in T20I cricket- 2866- the 2nd highest by an Aussie batter.
4th most 50s in T20Is- 25.
7th most 4s (290) & 10th most sixes (105) in T20Is.
6th fastest to 2500 T20I runs (87 innings).
3rd most number of 'Player of the Series' awards in T20Is- 4.
Warner is the fourth player to win the Allan Border Medal more than once and also win the award in consecutive years. He won it in 2016 and 2017. He was also awarded Australia’s ODI Player of the Year award in 2017.
In 2019, Warner won the prestigious 'Orange Cap' for his exploits with the bat in the IPL.
Then in 2020, the Australian opener claimed his 3rd Alan Border Medal following his stupendous performances in the 2019 World Cup and during the Test summer on home soil.
In November 2021, Warner was adjudged the 'Player of the Tournament' for playing a defining role with the bat in Australia's triumphant campaign.
Warner made his first-class debut for New South Wales in the final match of the 2008-09 Sheffield Shield competition. Warner played for Sydney Sixers in the 2012-2013 season of the Big Bash League.
Overall, Warner has featured in 127 FC and 187 List A games, and has scored 10296 and 7753 runs respectively. He has also played 335 T20s, scoring 11055 runs @ 37.98/141.44 with 93 50s and 8 100s.
Warner made his ODI debut in 2009 against South Africa. Warner scored his first ODI century in the first final of the CB series against Sri Lanka. Warner continued his good performance in the 2015 Cricket World Cup. He scored 178 runs against Afghanistan, his highest score in ODI and helped Australia cricket team to score the highest team total in any World Cup.
In 2016 Warner scored more runs in ODI than Test and was named in the World ODI XI by ICC in 2016 and 2017. Warner led his team for the first time during the 2016 ODI series against Sri Lanka. He was appointed the captain for the 2017-18 Trans-Tasman Tri-Series.
In April 2019, Warner was selected for the 2019 World Cup squad. During the World Cup, he became the first batsman to score two 150+ runs in the Cricket World Cup. He also reached the 1300 runs in international cricket during the tournament. He finished the tournament as the second-highest run-scorer behind Rohit Sharma.
Since then, Warner has featured in 22 ODIs and has managed 809 runs @ 38.52/91.82 with 7 50+ scores, including 1 hundred.
Warner made his Test debut against New Zealand in 2011. Ten days after his Test debut, he made his maiden Test century. For his performance in 2014, he was named in the World Test XI by ICC. Warner scored 418 runs in the 2015 Ashes, although Australia lost the series 3-2. In 2015, he was again named in the ICC World XI. Warner reached the 5000 Test runs mark in 2016.
On 24 March 2018, during the third Test of the series against South Africa, Cameron Bancroft was seen using sandpaper to rough up one side of the ball. Alongside Bancroft, captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were found to be involved in the incident. At the press conference at the end of the day’s play, Bancroft and Steve Smith admitted to ball-tampering and Smith also admitted that the plan was made by the “leadership group”.
Also see - Yuzvendra Chahal Biography
They were forced to step down as captain and vice-captain of the Australian team. On 27 March 2018, Smith, Warner and Bancroft were suspended and sent back home on the charge of bringing the game into dispute. Warner was found responsible for the development of the plan to tamper the ball and instructing Bancroft on how to do it.
He was also found guilty of misleading the match officials and not voluntarily reporting his involvement. Warner received a twelve-month suspension from all international and domestic cricket and he will not be considered for the team leadership position in the future. In July 2019, Warner was selected for the 2019 Ashes squad.
Warner endured a horrific return to Test cricket as he managed just 95 runs in 10 innings in Ashes 2019, with England seamer Stuart Broad having him all at sea from the round the wicket angle. Broad dismissed Warner on as many as 7 occasions in 10 innings.
The southpaw created an unwanted record as he aggregated the lowest tally in a five-match series by an opener, beating former New Zealand batter John D'Arcy's record of 136 runs in 10 innings against England in 2015.
Warner's place came under massive scrutiny post his struggles in England, but he silenced his detractors with yet another prolific home season against Pakistan and New Zealand.
In November 2019, Warner scripted history at the Adelaide Oval when he smashed his maiden triple-hundred- 335*- against Pakistan. His tally of 335 runs remains the 10th highest individual score in Test history. It's also the 2nd highest individual score from an Australian batter, 1 more than former captains'- Sir Don Bradman (334) and Mark Taylor (334*).
Warner backed it up with another superb hundred- 111*- against the BlackCaps at the SCG in January 2019.
Warner missed the first two Tests of the 2020/21 Border-Gavaskar Trophy due to injury but returned for the last two despite having not recovered completely. And, as expected, he struggled against a rampant Indian attack, managing scores of 5, 13, 1 & 48.
The southpaw managed a couple of 90s during the home Ashes in 2020/21, but, as has been the case with Warner right through his Test career, the former vice-captain struggled on the Asian tours of Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
In 3 Tests in Pakistan, Warner averaged 33.8, which fell to 21.33 during the two-match series in Sri Lanka.
His Twenty20 debut came against New Zealand on 11 January 2009. His score of 89 was the second-highest score on Twenty20 international debut. The opening pair of Warner and Shane Watson have been the most successful opening pair in T20I history.
They are the only opening pairs to have scored over 100 runs in T20I. Warner is the first Australian batsman to reach 1,500 T20I runs. Warner captained the side for the T20I series against Sri Lanka in 2016 and won the series 2-0.
However, Warner endured a nightmarish T20 World Cup campaign in India as he struggled to come to terms with the middle-order role. In 4 innings, the dynamic batter managed just 38 runs @ 9.50/108.57.
In 2018, Warner spearheaded Australia's charge to guide them to a record-breaking run-chase of 245 during a tri-series fixture against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland.
He eventually led Australia to the title, fuelling his case to become his nations' permanent skipper in the limited-overs formats. However, his involvement in the Newlands ball-tampering scandal put paid to those ambitions as CA banned him from leadership duties for life.
Warner continued to remain a vital cog of Australia's T20I batting line-up post his return from the 12-month ban. He achieved his greatest moment in this format during the 2021 World Cup, where he was adjudged the 'Player of the Tournament' for leading Australia to their maiden title.
In 7 innings, Warner hammered 289 runs @ 48.16/146.70 with 3 50+ scores, one of which came in the final- 53 off 38- against the BlackCaps.
However, the left-handed opener hasn't been able to replicate his exploits in the 2022 T20 World Cup so far. In 3 innings, Warner has managed just 19 runs @ 6.33/82.6.
Warner 4076 runs in the IPL are the most by an overseas player in the IPL. He also holds the record of most half-centuries with 44 to his name and the highest individual score by a captain (126) in the IPL. He has won the IPL Orange Cap three times, the most by any batsman.
From 2009 to 2013, Warner was the part of Delhi Daredevils. In the auction leading up to the 2014 IPL season, Warner was bought by Sunrisers Hyderabad for US$880,000. In 2015, he was appointed the captain of the team and he ended the season as the highest run-scorer. In 2016, he led the team to their maiden IPL trophy. He was again awarded the Orange Cap in the 2017 season.
Following the ball-tampering incident, he was banned from IPL 2018. Warner returned to Sunrisers Hyderabad for the 2019 season. He finished the season as the leading run-scorer and got his third Orange Cap, the most by any batsman in IPL history.
Warner had another prolific season in 2020 as he racked up 548 runs @ 39.14/134.64 with 4 50+ scores.
But, the law of averages finally got the better of the Australian opener during the 2021 edition. With him struggling for runs, and SRH losing one game after another, Warner was shockingly not only sacked as skipper but he was also dumped from the playing XI midway through the season.
Warner did return to the starting XI during the 2nd half of the IPL, but was again benched after a couple of failures. He was eventually released by SRH ahead of the 2022 mega-auction.
He returned to his maiden franchise- Delhi Capitals- after he was racked up by the JSW co-owned side for INR 6.25 Crores in the auction. The 36-year-old had a prolific 2022 season as he racked up 432 runs in 12 innings @ 48/150.52 with 5 50+ scores.
David Warner’s parents are Howard Warner and Lorraine Warner. He is married to Candice Warner and has three daughters. He also has an elder brother named Steven.
