By IANS,
Sydney : Australian captain Ricky Ponting has advised new sensation David Warner to back himself and trust his ability as he plays in front of his home crowd for the first time at the Sydney Cricket Ground here Friday.
Australian selectors have stuck with Warner to open the batting for the third one-dayer against South Africa, and Ponting has no doubts the rookie left-hander will stand up to the challenge.
Warner made headlines when he slammed a whirlwind 89 off 43 balls on his Twenty20 debut for Australia earlier this month.
But the 22-year-old flopped at his next start with a seven followed by another single-figure score in his one-day debut in Hobart.
“I guess in a way he probably wishes he didn’t make that 80-odd in that first Twenty20 game because it brought a bit of that pressure and spotlight on to him. I think we all saw in the Twenty20 how damaging he can be,” Ponting was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.
“Having said that, the wicket in Hobart did have life in it early on and it wasn’t easy to bat on.”
Ponting was confident that Warner will shoulder the expectations.
“For David now, I guess it’s a matter of working out a style that will work for him in the 50-over game and trusting in himself and not worrying about all this speculation about how good he might be or how quickly he’s going to score runs. That will only come from experience.”