"Hopefully, he's fit and ready": DC head coach Ponting provides injury update on David Warner

The Delhi-based franchise will take on Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Saturday.

Speaking at the pre-match press conference, Ponting said that they expect more improvement from Warner before the match. The head coach added that the 37-year-old batter needs to face fast bowlers to make sure he doesn't feel the pain anymore.

"He was 85 or 90 percent fit a couple of days ago. We'd expect that there'd be a little bit more improvement from him today. But he'll have to do a lot of batting today against fast bowling to make sure that the pain he had last week is not anymore. So, hopefully, he's fit and ready," Ponting was quoted in a release from DC as saying.

Warner was hit on the finger while batting against the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) on April 12. After that he was unable to make his place in the DC first eleven against Gujarat Titans (GT).

Asked about playing their first match of the season at the Arun Jaitley Stadium, Ponting said they are "excited" to play infront of home fans.

"We're really excited to be back. It's the home ground. We want to make sure this becomes a fortress for us when opposition teams come here. So, we're excited to be here and hopefully, we can start our home campaign well tomorrow," he added.

DC are in the sixth place of the IPL 2024 standings with six points after winning three of seven league matches. They are coming into this match after beating the Gujarat Titans (GT) by 6 wickets.

Delhi Capitals Squad: David Warner, Abishek Porel, Ricky Bhui, Yash Dhull, Shai Hope, Prithvi Shaw, Tristan Stubbs, Kumar Kushagra, Swastik Chikara, Ishant Sharma, Jhye Richardson, Rasikh Dar Salam, Vicky Ostwal, Anrich Nortje, Mukesh Kumar, Kuldeep Yadav, Praveen Dubey, Khaleel Ahmed, Sumit Kumar, Axar Patel, Mitchell Marsh, Lalit Yadav, Rishabh Pant (C), Jake Fraser-McGurk. (ANI)