T20 Tri-series: Australian captain David Warner’s leadership under the microscope

DAVID Warner’s captaincy will be on trial this Twenty20 tri-series as Australia looks to streamline their game ahead of the 2020 World Cup.

Chris Lynn, Dave Warner and Ashton Agar ahead of the T20s. Picture: David Swift

• D’Arcy Short will make his debut in T20 clash with New Zealand
• Ricky Ponting believes he can help Glenn Maxwell

DAVID Warner’s captaincy will be on trial this Twenty20 tri-series as Australia looks to streamline their game ahead of the 2020 World Cup.

Cricket Australia already has a specialist T20 selector in Mark Waugh, they want Ricky Ponting as their specialist T20 coach and the last remaining question is whether they feel a specialist T20 captain is also the way of the future.

At the moment CA says it’s not something they’re considering and Steve Smith maintains he currently has no intention of reducing his heavy workload.

Chris Lynn, Dave Warner and Ashton Agar ahead of the T20s. Picture: David Swift

However, if Australia are serious about their pledge to learn from England’s methods following their recent 4-1 drubbing in the one-dayers, they may look at the ECB’s staunch position that a specialist white-ball captain has its benefits.

Test skipper Joe Root appeared to relish taking a back seat in the leadership department come the one-dayers, and Eoin Morgan tactically nailed his team’s 50-over campaign when he stepped into the driver’s seat.

Ponting has long been of the belief that, eventually, captaining all three formats will take too great a toll on Smith — Australia’s most indispensable Test match cricketer.

That said, he has made it clear he wouldn’t push for change if he took over as T20 coach for the next World Cup and believes Smith is currently juggling his responsibilities well.

Assistant coach Ricky Ponting is a fan of Warner’s captaincy. Picture: Getty Images

But Ponting does believe Warner has a “great feel” for the shortest format of the game, purely because he has spent years at the forefront of the IPL where all the T20 trends and strategies are born.

“I wouldn’t necessarily be coming in pushing and changing leadership, no. I’d get a feel for the group and what I felt would be best for the team,” said Ponting.

“That’s the only way you should be thinking about it.

“Davey obviously gets a chance the next couple of weeks. Davey has done a good job in the IPL when he’s captained before. He’s obviously captained the Sunrisers to a final win a couple of years ago. He has a good feel for the T20 game and hopefully he can lead the team well the next couple of weeks.

Sunrisers Hyderabad captain David Warner lifts the IPL trophy in 2016. Picture: AFP

“When (Steve Smith) is playing as well as he is now he seems to be handling things pretty well … you’d have to ask him how he feels about it … but as his career goes on and the more cricket he plays I think the more challenging that’s going to become, especially when he’s an IPL captain as well. He just has no break at all from thinking about cricket 24-7 and thinking about captaincy 24-7.”

Ponting fears that many of Australia’s top-line players simply don’t play enough T20 cricket with those not picked up in the IPL also unable to play much or any Big Bash depending on their international commitments.

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson plays under Warner at Sunrisers Hyderabad — IPL champions two years ago — and believes the stand-in Australian captain reads T20 cricket better than most.

“As a player he understands the game extremely well,” said Williams.

“Dave is ultra-positive.

“To (score runs) so consistently over a period of two or three years has been really impressive which suggests as a gifted player he understands that format. It flows on to his captaincy and what he expects of the guys around him to go and play with a similar freedom.”

Originally published as T20 Tri-series: Australian captain David Warner’s leadership under the microscope