David Warner distances himself from prospect of Australian captaincy

David Warner revealed that he wasn’t harbouring any hopes of becoming Australia skipper at present saying that he was happy to play under the captaincy of Steven Smith as long as Cricket Austalia felt that the latter was the right man for the job, cricket.com.au reports.

Warner was reacting to fellow Australian opening batsman Aaron Finch’s comments on Wednesday wherein he suggested that Warner was ready to step up as skipper for the national team.

The 29-year-old hard-hitting batsman had been in sublime form in IPL 2016 and led his side Sunrisers Hyderabad to their maiden success in the tournament on Sunday with a victory over the Virat Kohli-led Royal Challengers Bangalore. The Aussie opener scored 848 runs during the 2016 IPL, including an unbeaten 93 against the Gujarat Lions in the second qualifier and 69 in the final against Royal Challengers Bangalore, thus playing a defining role in the team’s success.

Warner received much praise for his captaincy as well, as he managed to instil confidence in a team which was lacking in genuine star-material to make the most of the resources at his disposal and script a victorious campaign. Though he admitted that captaining Australia would be a dream come true, he would rather wait for the opportunity rather than demand or hope for Smith’s downfall for the chance to arise.

"That's very kind of Aaron to say that, but I'd prefer to answer those questions if something was to arise," said Warner, who arrived in the Guyanese capital Georgetown on Tuesday, after spending quality time with his family in New York City, in order to take part in the ODI triangular series involving West Indies and South Africa.

"I'm under Steven, he's the captain and he's the best person to do that job and he's been assigned that by the (Cricket Australia) Board. So that's for us to totally respect and I'm hoping he never gets injured. I'll just have to wait for that opportunity," he continued.

Elaborating further on his success story with the SRH franchise, Warner, who was appointed skipper ahead of the 2015 IPL season, said that he was delighted with the way things have panned out over the past couple of seasons.

“I always knew I had the ability to lead from the front and I had to try and start the team off to a good start, like every team I'm involved in. But to be captain and lead an IPL franchise to a victory, it was emotional,” an ecstatic Warner said.

"I can stand here today and hold my head high that I was able to point the guys in the right direction and have them buy into the way we wanted to play. It's taken a couple of years for the Sunrisers to do that and this year caps it off," he added.