The Sydney Thunder won’t bestow their captaincy on star recruit David Warner even when his lifetime management ban lifts by the point he joins the Big Bash League aspect this summer time.
After Australia’s Test collection towards South Africa concludes on January 8, Warner will finish a nine-year absence from the BBL and turn into the match’s largest signing for years.
Warner is topic to a lifetime management ban courting again to his involvement within the 2018 ball-tampering scandal however Cricket Australia indicated in November it could be open to reviewing sanctions if a case was introduced ahead.
A former vice-captain of the nationwide staff, Warner would have been a pure substitute for final summer time’s first-choice skipper Usman Khawaja, who has joined the Brisbane Heat after a decade with the Thunder.
But the BBL will come too late for Warner, even when his ban is lifted between now and January.
AAP understands the Thunder have nominated younger batter Jason Sangha as their most well-liked captain for the BBL and that the 23-year-old shall be appointed pending approval from the NSW Cricket Board.
Sangha captained the Thunder briefly final yr when Khawaja was on worldwide responsibility and second-choice skipper Chris Green had COVID-19.
A Thunder consultant instructed AAP Sangha had impressed coach Trevor Bayliss in his transient stint as captain final summer time and believed his time as NSW Blues vice-captain would function good preparation to guide the aspect this time round.
“If (the captaincy) does fall on my shoulders, I’d love to do it. It’s something that I’d be really thrilled to do,” Sangha instructed AAP.
Sangha and Warner first performed collectively in 2018, when the latter was serving a one-year ban from worldwide and home duties and re-joined his NSW Premier Cricket aspect Randwick-Petersham.
At the time, the teenaged Sangha was coming via the grades and starting to make a reputation for himself as a batting prospect.
“He taught me so much about the game and about the art of batting,” Sangha mentioned.
“Whether you were playing first grade or fifth grade, he really made an effort to have a connection with everyone.”
Warner is about to mentor Sangha regardless that he will not be thought of for a proper management function with the staff.
“T20 cricket really is very fast paced, so to have someone with a level head who knows exactly what to do in certain situations, that will go a long way,” Sangha mentioned.
“Someone like him can not just empower me but empower a lot of our younger batters about the actual art of batting in T20 cricket and also the tactics, the game awareness, and being really smart about field plays and little things like that.
“He simply is aware of a lot in regards to the recreation.”
