Global T20 League: David Warner Set to Don the Captain's Hat

Disgraced Australia batsman David Warner is all set to take over the captaincy duties at the Winnipeg Hawks in the ongoing Global T20 Canada.

David Warner returned to competitive cricket through the ongoing tournament in Canada. Before that, he had not played since the ball-tampering scandal against South Africa in March.

In the aftermath of the scandal, Cricket Australia (CA) had slapped lengthy bans on Warner, Steven Smith and Cameron Bancroft. While Smith and Warner received one-year ban each, Bancroft received a nine-month suspension.

However, CA had made it clear the forbidden trio would be allowed to play grade cricket. As a result, Smith and Warner got picked in the players’ draft for the ongoing competition.

And Warner is now all set to take his comeback to another level by donning the captain’s hat. Warner, however, will have to improve by leaps and bounds to lead his side from the front. The southpaw had managed only six runs from the three outings.

However, that hasn’t deterred the team management from naming him the leader in the wake of Windies all-rounder Dwayne Bravo pulling out of the rest of the tournament for unknown reasons.

Winnipeg coach Waqar Younis though is confident of Warner’s leadership skills.

“I’m sure he’s going to be a good leader when it comes to captaincy,” Younis told News Corp. “(Warner) is a leader. He’s a team man. I’ve seen him in IPL, and I’ve seen him as a leader. He’s up there, he’s upfront, and he likes to give whatever his knowledge is, he’s always there.”

Warner is not new to captaincy. In 2016, he had led IPL outfit Sunrisers Hyderabad to their first title.

Early this year, he had helped Australia win the T20I triangular series featuring England and New Zealand.

Coming to the league table, Winnipeg are on top of the points table with two wins from three games.