Australian batsman David Warner has been reinstated as the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain ahead of this year's Indian Premier League.
Warner captained Hyderabad to the IPL title in 2016. He missed the 2018 tournament after being banned for ball-tampering during Australia‘s Test series in South Africa the same year.
He returned for the 2019 IPL, but was not afforded the captaincy. Instead, New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson and Indian seamer Bhuvneshwar led the XIs. The Sunrisers are priced at 5.50 by bet365 to win the 2020 IPL.
“I'm thrilled to be given the captaincy for this coming IPL 2020. I'm extremely grateful to be given the opportunity to lead the team once again,” said Warner.
“I'd like to thank Kane and Kumar for the way you guys led throughout the last couple of years, you guys did an outstanding job. And I'll be leaning on you guys for support and your insight to the game as well. And to the management thank you once again for giving me this opportunity. And I'll try my very, very best to lifting that IPL trophy this year.”
Warner in South Africa
The hard-hitting Warner struck a half-century in Australia's 97-run victory over South Africa in the third and final T20I at Newlands in Cape Town on Wednesday. Newlands is where Warner and team-mates Cameron Bancroft and Steven Smith were first accused of ball-tampering two years ago.
“In this format of the game and probably one-day cricket as well, Dave's been so consistent for such a long time. If you look at his IPL record, where he's played the majority of his T20 cricket, it's been super consistent and he's someone that once he gets in and once he's in good form. He's so hard to bowl to because he accesses both sides of the ground, he's got touch, he's got power, so as soon as you've got guys like that, they can be so hard to stop,” said Australian limited-overs captain Aaron Finch this week.
“From his younger days playing T20, when it was all just brute force, the way that he goes about thinking through his innings, planning his innings pre-game, but also adapting – it's extraordinary.”
