Ricky Ponting picks David Warner as the best batsman of IPL 10

Former Australia world cup winning captain Ricky Ponting has singled out David Warner as the Best batsman of IPL 10 after the Sunrisers Hyderabad was eliminated from the tournament after losing the rain-curtailed eliminator clash against the Knight Riders by 7 wickets. Before the start of the tournament, Ponting was asked to pick his player of the tournament and he had taken the name of Warner back then also.

Warner is currently the only batsman in the tournament to amass more than 500 runs and is the holder of the orange cap. The year 2016 was more productive for him than 2017 when the southpaw smashed 848 runs but Virat Kohli bagged the orange cap for finishing with 973 runs in the tourney. Warner who had a horrendous outing against India in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy relished the challenge in IPL and came out with flying colours.

Warner was Ponting’s choice even before the start of the tournament

“I was asked right at the start of the tournament who I thought might be the player of the tournament and David Warner was the one I singled out,” Ponting was quoted as saying by the cricket.com.au.“I just felt on the back of the Test series in India that he probably wasn’t that happy with (his performance).

“Being back as captain of a team that won it the year before, I know he likes that extra responsibility as well and whenever he’s been captain or had that extra responsibility, he’s played well. The thing about Davey now as well is he’s very consistent in this form of the game which is not an easy thing to do.

“I think the captaincy thing sits well with him, he’s consistent and he plays match-winning knocks. That’s the bottom line,” the former captain added. Ponting felt that the lacklustre Border-Gavaskar series wouldn’t have impressed Warner a bit and it was time for him to pull his socks up and come good for his franchise and put the Test series debacle behind him.

“Knowing what Davey is like, he’s a pretty positive person, he backs himself and backs his skills and talent, I don’t think it would have been that hard to put that behind him,” Ponting said.”Going back into that successful environment from last year, there would have been a lot of confidence around the group and that would have rubbed off on him.

“He’s got a lot of experienced players around him and Tom Moody, as an Australian coach, would have helped him put that Test series behind him and then move on to trying to be the best player and best leader he can be for the Sunrisers.

“And he’s done that well again. His captaincy and his leadership last year has been outstanding, whether that be captaining the team on the field or the way he batted. But this year, he’s gone to another level again,” the two-time World Cup winning captain quipped.