David Warner will be Player of the Tournament in IPL 10: Ricky Ponting

Former Australian skipper Ricky Ponting has backed the Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner to come good this IPL season. Warner was a big disappointment during the recently concluded India v Australia Test series. He could aggregate only 193 runs on the tour across the 4 Test matches at a paltry average of 24.12. Coming in to the IPL straight after a disappointing series for the national side, Warner has found himself in the captaincy role of the defending champions Sunrisers Hyderabad.

As per the quotes in Cricket.com.au, former skipper Ricky Ponting feels that the confidence of leading a champion team will brush up on Warner’s personal form as well. He hopes to see Warner being one of the top performers of the IPL 10.

“On the back of a slightly disappointing Test series, he’s back at a championship-winning team and he’s captain. I think he loves that responsibility. And he’s an opening batsman. You’d think the Player of the Tournament is going to be a spinner or an opening batsman,” quoted Ponting.

He went on to say that Warner will be the Player of the Tournament this seaon. He noted that Warner’s style of play in the shortest format of the game is the ideal one for the tracks in India.

“That’s the way the T20 game is right now, so I think Davey [Warner] will be Player of the Tournament. You always like to go into any tournament with a lot of runs under your belt, but to me Davey is the sort of guy that it won’t bother too much,” Ricky Ponting quoted.

“He’s back into a really comfortable environment… and they’ve brought in a couple of really good inclusions player-wise as well. I think the fact that it’s T20 cricket, against the white ball and on very good pitches that you get in India, I’m sure he’ll have another good tournament.” Ponting added further.

Lastly, he felt that Warner has been a good captain too over the years. He feels when it comes to captaincy, Warner is right up there with the likes of Steven Smith in the shortest format of the game. He has the tactical knowledge with him which helps him to be a strong leader.

“He’s a strong character… and you need to be very strong in your beliefs (to captain in the IPL). You need those Indian players and everyone else to be on the same page and heading in the same direction. And if he gets more of an opportunity to captain Australia like he has done, I’m sure he’ll do a good job as well,” conceded the former Mumbai Indians coach.

“He was very impressive with his captaincy. You could see him on the field that he was very much like Smith. He’s a couple of overs ahead of the game, marshalling his troops really well,” he concluded.