David Warner played his last Test match against Pakistan, at the New Year’s Pink Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground. He bowed out of the format with 8,786 runs at 44.59 in Test cricket at a strike rate of 72, along with 6,932 runs in ODIs at 45.30 and 97.

Only 21 batters in all Test cricket have more runs than Warner. Restrict it to openers, and Warner’s 8,747 are the fourth-most in history and the most among Australians.

With a knack for rapid, big scores and an ability to lift his game at the World Cup, Warner remains one of the greatest ODI batters of the modern era as well. He was part of the Australian squads that won the 2015 and 2023 World Cups, the 2021 T20 World Cup, and the 2023 World Test Championship.

None of that, however, could impress John Buchanan, who coached Australia in the first decade of the 21st century, one of the strongest cricket teams of all time.

“I think he’s certainly performed exceptionally well throughout this career, he sits on 8,000-plus runs, he’s played over 100 Test matches, over 160 one-dayers and nearly 100 T20s,” admitted Buchanan on SEN Breakfast. “His averages are reasonable compared to all those in the various formats, his strike rate is obviously higher because of the way he plays the game. On performance base, he’s right up there.

“But greats of the game, in my opinion, are people that really do and have done something exceptional that others just can’t match, so therefore you automatically go to the [Don] Bradmans, [Glenn] McGraths, the [Shane] Warnes, they’re the greats in my opinion. Others come close, but are just not in that category and I don’t see Warner in that category.”

It is interesting that none of the three legends Buchanan mentioned was an opener.