Warner to stand in as captain for Sri Lanka T20Is

Warner to stand in as captain for Sri Lanka T20Is

David Warner was named captain of Australia's 13-man squad for the two Twenty20 Internationals against Sri Lanka on Thursday (August 25), after it was announced that Steven Smith would cut short his tour midway through the One-Day International series and return home for recuperation. Warner will also captain Australia in the three remaining ODIs.

The ODI series is currently tied at 1-1, after Sri Lanka coasted to an 82-run victory in Colombo on Wednesday. Australia had earlier sealed a hard-fought three-wicket win in the first ODI.

"Steve has a large amount of cricket coming up in the next 12 months and we wanted to find a time for him to freshen up. 

These last five matches provide a good opportunity to do so," said Rod Marsh, the selector. "Regardless of the results of the first two matches our plan was always for Steve to take a break and refresh ahead of the ODI Series against South Africa next month.

"This is a great leadership opportunity for David, he has really embraced his role as vice-captain and we are confident he will do a great job in Steve's place," he added.

Peter Nevill was named in the squad in place of Matthew Wade, who is with the team for the ODIs. Chris Lynn and Glenn Maxwell were the others who are not in the ODI squad to be included in the T20I side.

"Peter is the incumbent wicket-keeper in the T20 side and had a very good World T20 for Australia. The panel wanted to keep that consistency heading into these two matches," he said. "Both Chris (Lynn) and Glenn (Maxwell) are dynamic players who are both c

The two T20Is will be played at Pallekele and Colombo on September 6 and 9 respectively.

T20I squad: David Warner (capt), Scott Boland, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, John Hastings, Travis Head, Moises Henriques, Chris Lynn, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Peter Nevill (wk), Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa.

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