By his admission, David Warner was one of cricket's guinea pigs.
He was the first man to represent Australia before even playing a first-class game.
That was back in 2009, when Warner hit the scene as a trailblazing Twenty20 specialist and a new form of star.
Warner lit up the MCG that January night with 89 off 43 balls against South Africa.
But even he couldn't see any way he could become more than a white-ball sensation.
He was the last person most would have expected to join the 300-club. One of just seven Australians to do so.
Nor was he a man many could see hitting 23 Test centuries and counting, or breaking any of Don Bradman's records.
Be it the highest score at the Adelaide Oval, or Bradman's Test-best 334, which he bettered with 335no against Pakistan on Saturday.
"I had the luxury of coming through and being that person thrown out there - a little bit out of a testing guinea pig," Warner says.
"When I got the opportunity to play for Delhi in the IPL and I met Virender (Sehwag) there, he sat me down.
"He said I will be a better Test player than Twenty20 player. And I said to him, ``you're out of your mind'."
If Warner was an experimental guinea pig, the testing can now be declared an absolute success.
But it hasn't been easy.
When his Test debut came two-and-a-half years after his first Twenty20 cap, critics again asked if he was right for red-ball cricket.
Australia were a team struggling to occupy time at the crease.
Just a month earlier, they had been rolled for only 47 against South Africa in Cape Town.
Could a so-called T20 specialist like Warner be the answer?
But Warner is king at answering critics.
In just his second Test he batted through the second innings to score 123 against New Zealand on a seaming Hobart wicket as his teammates fell around him.
Questions have rightfully been asked about his record overseas too. He averages just 34.50 on foreign shores.
But still, his career average hasn't dropped below 40 since March 2013, and it's current mark of 48.58 is 12th highest of all Australian Test players.
