Australian Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting, while speaking to the media in Melbourne after being hired as head coach of Major League Cricket’s Washington Freedom, revealed that David Warner, who retired from the longer formats last month, captain the Capitals for the second consecutive season in case Rishabh Pant is not available in the upcoming IPL 2024 season.
David Warner returned to the Delhi-based team 2 seasons ago during the Mega Players auction for IPL 2022. The Ponting-led management waived him for Rs 6.25 crore and the pocket dynamite reunited with his first team of the Indian Premier League. after a wait of 8 years.
In those 8 years, Warner went through a lot, from reaching the peak of his career to hitting rock bottom. Right after the Delhi Capitals, who were Daredevils before 2019, the explosive left-handed batsman lifted his first ICC trophy in the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Land Down Under.
A year later in 2016, David Warner, who had captained the Sunrisers Hyderabad since 2014, led the south Indian team to their first IPL title since the franchise moved from Deccan Chargers to SRH. And two years later came the day that changed everything: the infamous Australian Sandpaper Gate on South African soil.
He was found guilty of being involved in that case along with Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft, who were banned for one year by the ICC from all international cricket action. Warner and Smith’s respective IPL contracts were also suspended that season and the move was such that Sunrisers Hyderabad even asked him not to come to the country and support the franchise he captained.
David Warner’s fairytale return to Delhi was splendid, but can he lead them to the maiden IPL title?
After returning to take over, David Warner led SRH to consecutive play-offs in 2019 and 2020 before finishing eighth in the 2021 season, which turned out to be his last. In February 2022, in the mega auction, after Delhi Capitals bought him back for over Rs 6 crore, Warner amassed 432 runs from the opening slot and was handed the captain’s job last year in light of the absence of Pant due to the horrible car accident he suffered. suffered in December 2022.
While his performance with the bat remained frustrating to some extent, he still managed to score over 500 runs, but DC performed poorly and finished ninth in the league table. Head coach Ricky Ponting has hinted at something similar (in terms of captaincy) next year as they hope their purchases from the December auction will serve the Capitals well.
“We have a really good team who, to be fair, have probably underperformed in recent years, so we have some work to do.” – Ricky Ponting told reporters in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, the Indian Premier League schedule for season 17 is yet to be released but there are indications that it will begin in early March and conclude in May as the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 is about to begin in the US. USA and the West Indies. since June.