The curtain came down on Australian opener David Warner's 15-year international career when Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh in St Vincent during the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024.
The win for Afghanistan knocked out Australia from the tournament at the Super 8 phase.
The result ensured a low-key farewell for Warner, who didn’t know for sure if the match against India will be his final outing since Australia still had an outside chance of qualifying for the semis.
Warner scored 3,277 runs in 110 T20I innings with the help of a hundred and 28 fifties at a strike-rate of 142.47.
Warner played his final ODI in November's World Cup final win over India and his last Test was against Pakistan in January. He had already indicated that this T20 World Cup would be his last tournament.
In his final appearance, he made six runs in as many balls, edging Arshdeep Singh to slip where Suryakumar Yadav completed the catch. There was no guard of honour or standing ovation as Warner made his way off the field.
Pacer Josh Hazlewood had stated that the timing of Warner's send-off from his teammates would rely on the result of Afghanistan's match against Bangladesh.
"Nothing's been said yet," Hazlewood said. "It might be said after this [press conference] before the [evening] game, but I think we'll wait until after the game and then we'll [acknowledge] the career that's been. It's been unbelievable. We'll definitely miss him around the group, out in the field and off-field - an amazing all-format career."
On Warner's farewell, Hazlewood said: "We've had a little taste of it. It's sort of been a slow burn with Test cricket and ODI cricket, and now T20. Life without him, we've sort of gotten used to it a little bit in New Zealand. It's always different when you lose a player that's been there for so long. But we'll move on and push forward."
Speaking before Australia's World Cup exit, Warner’s opening partner Travis Head said it would be a "disappointing" manner for Warner's career to culminate.
"We'll be disappointed if it ended like that, where we have to watch another game. A lot has been said about what he's contributed to Australian cricket at the top of the order in all formats,” Head said.
"He goes down as our best multi-format player. He'll be missed at the top of the order, but let's hope [tonight] is not the end of it. We'll wait and see but we'll give him a send-off tonight if that is the case later on. It might be a bit of a late one if the fixture finishes the way it has. But a lot has been said about how good Davey has been at the top of the order."
- David Warner
