Warner new Australia captain as Smith withdrawn

Steve Smith will leave Sri Lanka early to rest up and focus on the upcoming South Africa tour, with David Warner to take over captaincy of Australia’s ODI and T20 teams for the rest of the Sri Lanka tour.

The news comes as Australia suffered an 82-run defeat in the second ODI against Sri Lanka to leave the series finely poised at 1-1, reports Cricket Australia.

Smith: I hate missing cricket, but in the long run it will do me a world of good #SLvAUS pic.twitter.com/5PR1tbN38a

— cricket.com.au (@CricketAus) August 24, 2016

Warner will take over for the three ODIs in Dambulla and Kandy, and the two T20 matches that follow, and will become the 23rd man to captain Australia's ODI team, and the 10th to lead the T20 team. 

“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 and these last five matches provide a good opportunity to do so,” said Rod Marsh, Cricket Australia’s National Selector, in a statement.

“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,” Marsh also said.

“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.

Smith has captained Australia for the past 24 ODIs since taking over from Michael Clarke following the World Cup triumph in Melbourne last year. He has lead Australia to victory in 15 of those matches, with Australia's defeat in the second ODI in Colombo last night the eighth defeat of his stewardship.

Warner has been Smith's deputy since Clarke's retirement from the Test and one-day formats. Warner captained his T20 franchise Sunrisers Hyderabad to the Indian Premier League title this season.