IPL 2023: David Warner to lead Delhi Capitals

Delhi Capitals will be led by David Warner in IPL 2023, replacing Rishabh Pant, who is injured. As Pant gradually recovers from a horrific car crash in December, Ricky Ponting and the management decided Warner was the best man to serve as interim captain.

Axar Patel, who was the vice-captain in 2022, will continue in that role this year since Pant is ruled out of cricket.

Warner has been at the helm of Capitals twice before, briefly serving as interim captain for a few games during his first time with the franchise between 2009 and 2013. He moved on to Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2014 and was named their leader a year later. Under Warner’s guidance, Sunrisers went all the way to becoming IPL champions in 2016. With 35 successes out of 69 matches, the veteran remains joint-fifth on the most successful captains list.

Warner’s stellar batting record proves why he was handed the captaincy in the first place. He has scored 2,840 runs at an impressive average of 47.33 and a strike rate of 142.28 with one century and 26 fifties to his name. Unfortunately, this robust form wasn’t maintained during the early stages of 2021 IPL, leading to Sunrisers making the tough decision of replacing him with Kane Williamson as captain and eventually releasing him ahead of the mega auction – where Delhi Capitals managed to bid for Warner at INR 6.25 crore ($762,000 approx then).

As the leading run-maker for Capitals last IPL, Warner scored 432 runs at an average of 48 and struck at 150.52, including five half-centuries. After a heartbreaking loss in the last league match against Mumbai Indians, Capitals narrowly missed making the play-offs.

In the second Test in Delhi, Warner was stuck on the elbow by a short delivery from Mohammed Shami, which ended his Border-Gavaskar Trophy first half. Although Warner’s Test career is coming to an end, his white-ball career remains strong and he will look to utilize the IPL experience to prepare Australia and himself for the ODI World Cup, which will take place in India in October and November.

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