David Warner to lead Winnipeg Hawks in Global T20 Canada

Former Australian captain David Warner, who as per the Cricket Australia sanction was barred for life from holding any leadership position in Australian cricket, is all set to take over the captaincy duties at the Winnipeg Hawks in the ongoing Global T20 Canada.

The 31-year old is yet to create impact in the tournament.

Warner returned to domestic cricket for the first time since the infamous ball-tampering scandal in Newlands earlier this year.

He scored only six runs in the three innings he played.

His teammate Dwayne Bravo has been pulled out of the remainder of the Global T20 Canada tournament due to an injury.

The team management decided to rope in Warner as skipper.

Steve Smith is barred from holding a leadership position in Australia for two years, but Warner was given life because CA underpinned their entire investigative findings on the belief that he was the mastermind of the sandpapergate scandal.

However, some leading figures like Younis and others in the Australian system believe such a restriction is counter-productive to the potential value Warner can put back into the game, particularly at domestic level.

Younis has ample coaching experience and said he had absolutely no issues turning to Warner despite what happened in Cape Town.

The team coach and former Pakistan pacer Waqar Younis has his say on the appointment of David Warner as captain, “I’m sure he’s going to be a good leader when it comes to captaincy,” Younis 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.”

Winnipeg side are currently on top of the points table with two wins from three games and for a better net run rate. They are all set to play their upcoming game against Cricket West Indies B team on Thursday.

Here’s the updated squad of Winnipeg Hawks:

David Warner (C), David Miller, Lendl Simmons, Darren Bravo, Fidel Edwards, Rayad Emrit, Ben McDermott, Ali Khan, Hamza Tariq, Tion Webster, Rizwan Cheema, Hiral Patel, Mark Deyal, Kyle Phillip, Junaid Siddiqui