IPL 2023: David Warner Set To Replace Injured Rishabh Pant As Delhi Capitals Captain This Season

In IPL 2023, David Warner could become just the second batter to score 6,000 runs in IPL after Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Virat Kohli.

Photo: BCCI/IPL

Australian opener David Warner is all set to be named Delhi Capitals skipper for the upcoming Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 season which gets underway on March 31. Warner will replace Rishabh Pant at the helm since the Indian wicketkeeper is still recovering from injuries suffered in a horrific car accident last year in December.

According to ESPNcricinfo, head coach Ricky Ponting and the DC team management feel that Warner could be the best man for the job this year, considering the fact that he has experience of leading an IPL franchise – Sunrisers Hyderabad – to the title in the past.

With Pant ruled out for most of 2023, DC had the option to choose between Warner and their vice-captain Axar Patel and they chose the former. This will be the second time Warner will lead Capitals, having been the interim captain for a couple of matches during the last year of his first stint with the franchise between 2009 and 2013 (Delhi Daredevils back then).

The Aussie opener, who has returned to India to join the Australian ODI side after missing the last two Tests due to elbow injury, was bought by Sunrirsers Hyderabad in 2014 and appointed the captain a year later. In 2016, Warner took SRH to the IPL title.

David Warner and Mitchell Marsh met the Delhi Capitals team. pic.twitter.com/f2S6GSYsuA

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) March 15, 2023

He is the joint-fifth most successful captain, in terms of matches won – in 69 matches, Warner’s teams won 35, lost 32, and tied two matches. As a skipper, Warner has scored 2840 runs at an average of 47.33 and a strike rate of 142.28 with one century and 26 fifties.

Warner was released by SRH ahead of the IPL 2022 mega auction, where DC bought him for Rs 6.25 crore. The Aussie southpaw was the leading run-maker for the Capitals in IPL 2022 scoring 432 runs at an average of 48 and a healthy strike rate of 150.52 including five half-centuries. The Capitals, though, narrowly missed making the play-offs after a heart-breaking loss in a must-win final league match against the Mumbai Indians.

Overall, Warner has scored 5,881 in 162 IPL matches till date at an excellent average of 42.01 and a strike-rate of 140.69 with 4 hundreds and 55 fifties. In IPL 2023, Warner could become just the second batter to score 6,000 runs in IPL after Royal Challengers Bangalore’s Virat Kohli.

The Capitals will begin their campaign in IPL 2023 with a clash against KL Rahul’s Lucknow Super Giants in Lucknow on April 1. Their first home game will be against the IPL defending champions Gujarat Titans on April 4.