Tom Moody, the former Sunrisers Hyderabad head coach, has revealed it was only “by chance” that the franchise signed David Warner in the 2014 IPL auction.

Warner started his IPL career with the Delhi Daredevils in the 2009 season and spent four years with them before moving to Hyderabad. The opener, only a year after being bought by the Sunrisers in 2014, was appointed the captain and finished the season with the Orange Cap, awarded to the edition’s leading run-scorer.

“Yeah [we made him captain], which surprised a lot of people at the time,” Moody said while in conversation with Harsha Bhogle on Cricbuzz. “I suppose when we secured Davey in the auction, to be truthful, it was by chance that we got him because we were expecting Delhi [Daredevils] to use the right-to-match card which they failed to do.

“So obviously they ran out of patience with regards to his maturity as a player and as a person where I assured our owners and our management that, ‘Trust me, I feel that I can work with Davey [Warner] and get the very best out of him because he is a superstar.’ And as soon as he put on orange, he didn’t really look back.”

Warner led the franchise to the IPL title in only his second season as the captain. With the bat, he was at his best yet again, finishing the second-highest run-getter with 848 runs, behind only Virat Kohli (973), the most runs anyone has scored in an IPL season. He won the Orange Cap again in 2017 and 2019, repaying the faith of coach Moody.

Is Warner currently the best T20 batsman?https://t.co/8okOrIbpZ8

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) June 12, 2020

“When it comes to leadership, I think a lot of people don’t understand with David Warner is that he’s a very astute thinker of the game. They just sort of see him as that person who bangs the ball out of the ground and intimidates the opposition, and can be a little bit chirpy, certainly the old David Warner. The bottom line is there was this real drive inside him which I knew, that he wanted to take on leadership and he had the skills.

“From a coaching point of view, your role is that you just fill the spaces, wherever the leader maybe falling short in. So I knew that I could cover the areas that he might be slightly weak or developing in and there are certain things he could do out in the middle that very few could do. So I thankfully had the backing of Murali and Laxman, the two mentors, and obviously the management at the time.”