Warner appointed Sunrisers captain

Australia opener David Warner will lead Sunrisers Hyderabad in the eighth season of the IPL. Warner and Sunrisers tweeted the news from their official accounts, but the management did not elaborate on the reasons.

Warner will be the fifth player to lead Sunrisers and the third Australian to lead a franchise in IPL 2015. George Bailey is the captain of Kings XI Punjab while Shane Watson will lead Rajasthan Royals for the second season in a row.

Warner, who joined Sunrisers only in 2014, made an instant impact finishing as the tournament's fourth-highest run-scorer with 528 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of 140.80. Still he could not swing the fortunes of Sunrisers, who finished sixth overall.

It was a tough second season for Sunrisers, who made their IPL debut in 2013 after Deccan Chargers were terminated. Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan was appointed captain in 2014 but failed to provide stability at the top of the order. Since he was battling for form and consistency, the team management decided to elevate West Indies allrounder Darren Sammy to take over the captaincy for the second half of the tournament. But Sunrisers continued to flounder which probably prompted the franchise to have a re-think.

Sunrisers had bought Kevin Pietersen in the auction last month for Rs 2 crore (approx $330,000) but with question marks over his availability for the upcoming IPL season, the Hyderabad franchise probably opted for a more plausible option.