Australia batsman David Warner understands the reasoning behind his lack of elevation to the ODI captaincy ahead of their ODI tri-series clash against Sri Lanka.

With captain Michael Clarke sidelined for at least one match by a hamstring injury, the hosts handed former skipper Ricky Ponting the reins for Friday's fixture in Sydney, leaving Warner to suffice with his role as vice-captain.

Quick to promote Cameron White to the T20I captaincy in the past, and more recently George Bailey, the brains trust preferred the experienced Ponting to the maturing Warner this time around. The move attracted its fair share of criticism, with erstwhile captain Steve Waugh in particular questioning the selectors' thinking.

The left-handed Warner, however, is content in his role as a specialist batsman. Sporting a mere 58 runs from his first three knocks in the series thus far, the talented opener is eager to make amends for his lean run of form recently without the additional pressures of the official captaincy weighing on his shoulders.

"I'm just happy I'm playing another one-day game for Australia - that's the main thing," insisted Warner. "I haven't had a great start to the one-day series and I'm just looking to put numbers on the board.

"As the selectors have said, they don't want to put any extra pressure on myself and I felt the same thing. I took that on board and I thoroughly respect their decision.

"I'm thoroughly enjoying my role behind Michael and obviously appointing Ricky as captain is probably due to his experience. It's an opportunity for me to be under him as well. He's led the country for many years and I'm looking forward to being his vice-captain."

Shane Watson, who last week came back from injury to turn out in a grade cricket clash, is set to return to the Australia XI before the conclusion of the ongoing tri-series with India and the Sri Lankans. He too felt that the decision to give Ponting, who gave up the role at the end of an unsuccessful World Cup campaign last year, the captaincy in the absence of Clarke was the correct decision.

"I'm not surprised because Ricky has had an amazing amount of success and experience as captain," added Watson.

"For experience there's no doubt that Ricky is the man for that and I think it'll be nice for Ricky to be able to have the captaincy and not have the experience of what he had the last few games that he was the official Australian captain, so he'll probably be excited to be able to do it but probably just enjoy taking another back seat and continue to play the way he is."