Warner happy to stay an understudy

Australian opener David Warner says being overlooked for the captaincy in favour of Ricky Ponting for Friday’s one-day international against Sri Lanka is fine with him.

Selectors chose to name Ponting as skipper for the SCG clash with Michael Clarke sidelined due to a hamstring injury despite Warner being the one-day vice-captain, a position he’ll retain under Ponting.

The decision left many, including former Test captain Steve Waugh, wondering why selectors would make Warner vice-captain in the first place if they didn’t feel he was ready to lead the team.

But the 25-year-old left-hander said he’d been informed well in advance by chairman of selectors John Inverarity he wouldn’t be leading the team and he understood why Ponting had been given the nod.

“Obviously appointing Ricky as captain is due to his experience and that’s an opportunity for me to be under him as well and he’s led the country for many years so I’m looking forward to being his vice,” Warner told reporters on Wednesday.

“I’m just actually happy I’m playing another one-day game for Australia, that’s the main thing.

“Obviously I haven’t had a great start to the one-day series … as selectors have noted they don’t want to put any extra pressure on myself and I agree with that.”

While Waugh might not understand the decision, another former Test skipper, Kim Hughes, says it was right not to give the captaincy to Warner.

“As far as establishing himself as a consistent player, he’s a long, long way away from that,” Hughes told Melbourne radio station SEN.

“He’s intuitive, brilliant in the field but I just think the last thing he needs is too many burdens.

“At this stage Warner is still coming to grips with what he needs to be to become a great player, which we all hope he will be, and that’s consistency.”

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