Follow UsFormer South African captain Graeme Smith said that David Warner can rival Chris Gayle for the opener's spot if he had to pick an all-time IPL XI. Warner, who had been off-loaded by Sunrisers Hyderabad last year, returned to Delhi Capitals this year and regained his scoring touch with three half centuries on the trot.
On Wednesday, Warner remained unbeaten on 60 off 30 balls as DC chased down a paltry target of 116 against Punjab Kings in just 10.3 overs.
"I was looking at all-time IPL XI and he (Warner) was always in the consideration. If you consider four overseas players in it, he is certainly the rival to Chris Gayle. He has also been in a leadership role before and his fielding is really good. A happy David Warner and an in-form David Warner is a good guy to have in your team," Smith said in Cricket.com's review of the match.
Smith also felt that head coach Ricky Ponting, being familiar with the Australian set-up, understands the assignment of handling a character like Warner. Warner had described Ponting as a 'father figure' in the DC camp.
"He is not the easy character to have in your team. He needs to be happy and Ricky Ponting understands that and knows how to get the best out of him," Smith added.
Smith also pointed to the pressures of bubble life might have contributed to Warner's slump in IPL 2021, where he was booted off the captaincy and was benched by Sunrisers Hyderabad for majority of the season.
Axar Patel starred for DC in the match as the left-arm spinner claimed 2-10 from his four overs, including the big wicket of Liam Livingstone.
"It was beautiful bowling to Livingstone - flat and hitting the surface, knowing that the batsman was going to take on him. The key tonight was he bowled stump to stump and got enough turn to create doubt and difficult to get away. Kuldeep is the main spinner in that lineup but Axar will be very happy with the outcome," Smith said.
"Credit also needs to go to Rishabh Pant. He had the right bowlers at the right time to keep the wickets coming," he added.
DC climbed up to sixth in the table with the big win after enduring a tough start to the season.
"The only things I think can think about is that it was good toss to win for Delhi Capitals to settle the nerves due to the virus scare. 180-190 would've been a competitive tonight, but its has been so disappointing from their (Punjab) top four. But Delhi are back in the competition."
Punjab Kings persisted with Jonny Bairstow despite the Englishman's poor run of form in the last four matches as they brought in Nathan Ellis in place of floundering allrounder Odean Smith for the match against DC. Smith felt Bhanuka Rajapaksa should be considered for selection as the Sri Lanka batter brings depth to their batting lineup.
"I think its a bigger story for me. If you have Rabada batting at No.7, that's a problem. It's like one or two places high. He's not the player who's gonna get 70-80. On the paper, they have a great top order. We thought may be they'll bring in Nathan Ellis or a specialist bowler, but Rajapaksa has to come in to consideration. With Bairstow, i'll back him for a one or two games, but Rajapaksa brings certain balance to the team."
Despite having a top-order full of established players, Punjab have failed to post big scores in the last two games, with Jitesh Sharma and Liam Livingstone being the only players in form. Smith felt that Wednesday's pitch at the Brabourne Stadium was good for batting which Punjab were unable to exploit.
"Dhawan had batted deep two matches or so. But today, it felt like they needed 230 or 240 at the Brabourne after watching the Royals' game. When Delhi batted in the evening, it looked like a good batting pitch."
Smith also felt teams need to make the batting abilities of tailenders their top priority if they are get over the line from tricky situations.
"If you think about the full season, you are going to need someone from 8-10 to hit the winning runs. You are looking for tailenders to take the responsibility because not every game's going to be perfect. I think it is a priority."
Punjab's hitter Shahrukh Khan had a disappointing campaign so far with 98 runs from seven innings at a strike rate of 100. When asked if players who are not centrally contracted with the BCCI should play in leagues outside India, Smith said: "Speaking from another country's perspective, we would love to have few Indian players and bolster their experience. It would add a lot of value to our tournaments. But it is understandable why BCCI is doing it (not allowing Indians to feature in foreign leagues). IPL is their biggest investment and they develop extreme amounts of talent from it."