Warner puts his hand up for Test captaincy

New Delhi, March 21 (IANS): Dynamic opener David Warner has said he harbours ambitions of captaining the Australian Test team one day.

Warner as a 20-year-old was thrown out of Australia’s Centre of Excellence and believes that incident has made him more mature.

File Photo of David Warner. (Getty Images)

“It’s definitely something I’d love to do,” he said ahead of the fourth Test against India starting tomorrow. “Obviously Pup (Michael Clarke) is doing a great job now, but in time I think I’d have something to offer,” Warner was quoted as saying by the Australian media.

“The setback of getting kicked out of the cricket academy was disappointing. That was a lack of maturity on my part. The group we had there was fantastic, but we were kidding ourselves if we thought we were doing the right thing.

“That showed me you have to do the right things along the way. I had some setbacks but I’d like to think I learned from my mistakes and I still have growing up to do.

The current captain Michael Clarke and the vice-captain Shane Watson are both aged 31, and with age on his side the explosive left-hander could be one of the next candidates for the top post.

“I’m only 26. I’m still learning off the older guys in the team, but I’d like to think of myself as a leader in this environment.”

Warner, who plays for the Delhi Daredevils, has two fifties to his name in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy and Indian team would be wary of abilities when he takes the field here (his IPL homeground) Friday in the fourth and final Test.