Australian opener David Warner reached a unique feat during the India vs Australia World Cup 2023 encounter in Chennai on Sunday.
Warner, 36, became the fastest player to reach the 1000-run mark in the One Day International (ODI) World Cup history in just 19 innings.
He went ahead of India’s great Sachin Tendulkar and South Africa’s AB de Villiers, as both of them completed 1000 runs in 20 innings.
He also became the only third Aussie to reach this hallmark after Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting.
Gilchrist scored 1085 runs in 31 matches at 36.16 average with eight fifties and one century. While Ponting scored 1743 runs in 46 matches at a handsome 45.86 average with six fifties and five hundreds.
Warner has been a force to reckon with for Australia in the World Cups. In 19 innings, the left-handed batter amassed a total of 1033 runs at an astounding 60.76 average with three fifties and four centuries.
However, his 2019 World Cup campaign in England is one to remember where the 36-year-old contributed 647 runs in 10 matches and was the second-highest top-scorer of that mega event.
Despite scoring more runs in the 2019 campaign, Warner will always have the 2015 World Cup run close to his heart as he was not just part of the tournament-winning team but also contributed to 345 runs in eight matches.
It must be noted that India and Australia began their World Cup 2023 journey on Sunday and the Blues have dominated the Aussies as by the time this story was filed, the struggling-visitors were batting at 140-7 in 37 overs.
The tricky wicket of Chennai provided all kinds of support to the Blues’ classy spinners, Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav, with the former bagging three and the latter taking two wickets.
Playing XI
India: Rohit Sharma (c), Ishan Kishan, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Kuldeep Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj
Australia: David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, Glenn Maxwell, Alex Carey (wk), Cameron Green, Pat Cummins (c), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa, Josh Hazlewood
- David Warner