David Warner named replacement captain for Dwayne Bravo at Winnipeg Hawks

Banished Australian cricketer is set to make a comeback to a "leadership role", after being appointed as the captain for his franchise side Winnipeg Hawks in the inaugural edition of the Global T20 Canada. He will replace West Indian all-rounder Dwayne Bravo, who after leading the side to two wins in three matches, has pulled out from the rest of the tournament for entirely "unspecified reasons."

Warner, who was handed a lifetime ban from the capacity of leadership after he enticed rookie batsman Cameron Bancroft into changing the state of the ball with sandpaper on Australia's ill-fated tour of South Africa. However, the ban exists only with regards to the national sides, and hence Warner will make a return to leading a side.

Hawks' coach Waqar Younis had no qualms about Warner's appointment, having seen him lead from close quarters in his stint with the SunRisers Hyderabad, where Warner was skipper, Younis vouched for him with much confidence. "I’m sure he’s going to be a good leader when it comes to captaincy," he 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."

He led the side for three seasons, once narrowly missing out on a playoffs spot, once finishing third and in the watershed year 2016, he inspired an underrated side to conquer the most dominant side of that season, Royal Challengers Bangalore, in the final, scoring a mind-numbing 848 runs in the course of the season. Even for Australia, Warner has had excellent times as captain, in 12 matches, he has lost just one rain-curtailed match and has an astonishing win/loss ratio of 10.

Captaining the Hawks can help Warner get out of his form slump too, in the three matches of his comeback to competitive cricket, he has scored an aggregate of 6 runs, but he has been known to lead from the front, as he recently did in the Trans-Tasman T20 tri-series, particularly smashing 59 off just 24 at the top of the order to help Australia chase a world record target of 245 in just 18.5 overs.