Cricket

Polarising David Warner bows out with Australia T20 World Cup exit

David Warner’s 15-year international career came to an anti-climactic end on Tuesday as Australia had been dumped out of the T20 World Cup in excruciating style.

Australia and Warner might solely watch on powerless as Afghanistan as a substitute reached the semi-finals by beating Bangladesh by a nail-biting eight runs.

Australia’s destiny had hung within the stability after India defeated them by 24 runs in St. Lucia on a day of excessive drama.

David Warner stood tall on the prime of the Australian order

The 37-year-old opening batsman Warner had at all times mentioned the World Cup within the United States and Caribbean can be his farewell to worldwide cricket.

He couldn’t have imagined going out fairly like this.

The combative Warner stood tall on the prime of the Australian order ever since his worldwide debut in January 2009, and as opening companions got here and went.

He hangs up his pads as arguably Australia’s biggest three-format participant. He is the nation’s main run-scorer in T20 cricket with 3,277 from 110 video games.

David Warner exited a glittering 112-Test profession in January after plundering 8 786 runs at a median of 44.60, with a strike fee of 70.19. His one-day exploits had been equally spectacular, crunching 6 932 runs from 161 matches.

Warner was additionally probably the most constant slip fielders within the recreation, whose title was among the many first on the staff sheet.

“He is probably our greatest-ever three-format player. He’ll be a loss,” Australia coach Andrew McDonald mentioned lately.

“Other people have been gunning for him for a period of time, but for us internally, we’ve seen the great value and what he brings to the table, hence why we’ve kept picking him.”

Tarnished

But for all his exploits on the pitch, Warner made enemies alongside the best way and can eternally be remembered for his key position in a infamous ball-tampering scandal in 2018.

Warner was seen because the chief plotter when Cameron Bancroft used sandpaper to scuff the ball earlier than a crude try to hide the proof down his trousers throughout a Test in Cape Town.

Along with skipper Steve Smith, David Warner was suspended for a 12 months by Cricket Australia, stripped of the vice-captaincy and banned from ever main the staff.

Warner, who will proceed to play T20 cricket in leagues around the globe and also will be a commentator, admitted this month he would at all times be tarnished by “Sandpaper-gate”.

“I think it’s going to be inevitable that when people talk about me in 20 or 30 years’ time, there will always be that sandpaper scandal,” he mentioned.

He feels he has been unfairly singled out.

“Whether it’s people who don’t like the Australian cricket team or don’t like me, I’ve always been that person who has copped it,” he added.

For that motive, Warner mentioned he was trying ahead to worldwide retirement.

“One can only absorb (so much),” he mentioned. “For me, it’s great to go out knowing I’m not going to cop it anymore.”

‘Different side’

Warner was at all times an assertive presence and his involvement in “Sandpaper-gate” was not a shock to many.

In June 2013, he was suspended and fined for punching England’s Joe Root in a Birmingham bar on the eve of the Ashes.

“I’m extremely remorseful. I have let my teammates, Cricket Australia, the fans, myself and my family down,” mentioned David Warner on the time.

Two months earlier he was equally contrite after an unpleasant Twitter spat with two Australian journalists.

Despite the controversies, he saved bouncing again.

Former Australia skipper Ricky Ponting mentioned Warner was a troublesome competitor, however a distinct individual off the sphere.

“I’ve heard a lot from Davey recently about people making judgements about him from the way they see him play his cricket,” he advised reporters on the World Cup.

“Once he’s retired and he makes that next step of life into the media, you’ll see a totally different side to him.”

By Garrin Lambley © Agence France-Presse


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