Is David Warner modern day cricket's greatest opener?

David Warner screamed in all three forms of cricket.

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David Warner does not always listen, but he did when this man talked. 

Virender Sehwag is one of the fastest-scoring Test batters of all time. Of all the franchises in all the leagues, David Warner had to walk into Delhi. At that point, Warner was the guy who slogged Dale Steyn back over his head, was getting deals on double-sided T20 bats, and had not played red-ball cricket. But in Sehwag, Warner found more than another T20 hitter, he had a fast-scoring Yoda.

Sehwag told Warner that he would be a better Test cricketer than a T20 hitter at a time when the southpaw hadn’t even played first-class cricket. Viru saw the future as well as he did the ball. 

Remember, a Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and attack, never for defense. Sehwag was right to see Warner as a test player. 

For his last red-ball innings, Pakistan opened the bowling with off-spinner Sajid Khan while defending 130 in the SCG. He got Usman Khawaja leg before wicket for a duck in the very first over. 

David Warner reverse-swept him for a boundary and finished with a memorable 57 in his final outing in whites. The spirit of the player with the double-sided bat lasted until the end, even if much else had changed. 

Warner started as a T20 hitter, but along the way conquered both ODI and Test. And that is perhaps the most boring way of putting a cricketer who lived his life very loud. He was a cricketer with full volume. David Warner screamed in all three forms of cricket. And while it is often hard to look beyond the drama of his very existence, the loudness of every moment.

Now, what about the cricket?

There are factors that suggest he may not have been the best opener in each format. But is there anyone better in all three? Was Warner the greatest all-format modern-day opener? 

Warner ended up finishing 5th on the all-time list of run-getters for Australia in Test cricket. An incredible career for a man who really got his shot on an Australian A tour of Zimbabwe, and announced himself properly by ending Vinay Kumar’s Test career in a ball during his first Test hundred. 

His Test and ODI careers are now over, he’s still available if Australia need him in the Champions Trophy. He will continue into the T20 World Cup and franchise T20. 

There was even some debate if he could call the shots on his retirement, partly due to his Test form. But his achievements are great. Warner scored a crucial 43 against India in the first innings of the WTC final last year in June when Australia had a shaky start with the loss of Khawaja for a duck. Even though he was out in the first session, his innings really helped set the tone for what followed later in the day in the Head-Smith partnership.

That meant that Australia went on to win the title. Warner was now a founding member of the most elite club in cricket, with players who have won ICC trophies in all three formats. 

Five months later, this group would go on to win the World Cup in India again. Australia holds dual crowns, that is in red and white ball cricket.

Let’s start with him as a Test player. David Warner is the fastest opening batter of his era in Test cricket with a minimum of 2000 runs. Markram and Dhawan come close, but they have about half the runs combined between the two of them. Rohit hits a lot of sixes, but he also changed his style of play for a more attritional technique while batting in England. There is no doubt that Warner is alone in his era as a fast scorer at the top. 

As far as the all-time list goes, he is only behind his Delhi teammates Sehwag and Dilshan. This isn’t all players, as we don’t know Victor Trumper’s full record. But I think we can safely say Warner is the third-fastest opener ever in Tests. 

Warner is significantly quicker than the global strike rate of 48.19 for openers in his era. The openers in his matches score even slower at 47.25. Those strike rates aren’t an anomaly in the format, Warner’s is. 

Now, strike rates can be confusing in Tests. In the end, it is about how many, and not how fast. An opener who scores really fast, like around that 80 mark, is perhaps the most important fast scorer. Because all the plans and hopes the bowling team has can be lit on fire. Warner would effortlessly score fast by punching the ball and running like a jackrabbit. He made you think about the boundary and ring fielders. 

There is an argument that the greatest teams of all time have attacking openers, the ultimate disrupters. Gordon Greenidge from the great West Indies team, Hayden for Australia, and Sehwag for India. Warner follows on from that. 

Warner has the third-best average for an opener in his era, behind his fellow opener Khawaja and Rohit. But they started opening regularly a lot later than Warner did. They were both fully formed cricketers. When Australia threw him in to work it out, Warner barely played in first-class cricket. He played in that spot pre and post-peak. 

He averages about 12 more than the rest of the openers in his era and match. It hasn’t been a great era for openers - the wobbleball made sure of that - but he’s clearly well above just a plus opener.  

And even when compared to the top 6 batters of his generation, he is 25% above the global batting average and about 15% for the matches he played. He has made a lot of runs, through two very different eras. 

Warner has the fourth-most runs at home and the seventh-best average among batters with over 2000 runs. Only Hayden has a better record as an opener, and he played in one of the most dominant Australian sides ever and a great batting era.

But before we get going saying Warner is the best modern-day Test opener, we need to show you this. Warner has the fourth-lowest away average for openers with over 1000 runs on the road. But none of the batters with the top three averages have played more than 31 innings in this era. Karunaratne, Cook, Brathwaite, Latham, Elgar, and Rahul have batted over 50 times. From that list, only Elgar has a lower average. So, how does Warner compare to these guys away from home?