New Delhi: Seeking revival of fortune, SunRisers Hyderabad on Saturday removed under-performing David Warner from captaincy and handed over the reins of the team to New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson for the remainder of the Indian Premier League (IPL).
Under Warner, SRH have lost five of their six games as the Australian hasn’t been in the best of form in the ongoing edition and his position had become untenable.
It has been learnt that Warner is currently not on best terms with the SunRisers think-tank, comprising of Director of Cricket Tom Moody and mentor VVS Laxman.
“SunRisers Hyderabad would like to announce that Kane Williamson will be taking over the captaincy for tomorrow’s match and for the remainder of IPL 2021,” SRH said in a statement.
“The team management has also made the decision that they will be changing the overseas combination for tomorrow’s match against Rajasthan Royals,” it further said, indicating that Warner could be dropped from their playing XI.
West Indies captain Jason Holder is likely to replace Warner in the playing XI. In his six innings, Warner scored 3, 54, 36, 37, 6 and 57.
“The decision has not come lightly as the management respects the enormous impact David Warner has had on the franchise over a number of years. As we face the remainder of the season, we are sure David will continue to help us strive for success both on and off the field,” the statement said.
The tone and tenor of the SRH press release was an indication enough that all is not well in the SunRisers camp.
According to sources in the know of things, Moody and Warner don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things and the flash-point seems to be dropping of seasoned Indian batsman Manish Pandey for a rookie named Virat Singh, who looked at sea against Delhi Capitals.
Warner didn’t hide his anger after the loss against Capitals and termed call to drop Pandey as a “harsh” one.
“It was a harsh call in my opinion. But at the end of the day, it is the decision of the selectors to do that,” Warner had said at the post match presentation ceremony.
Warner, it is learnt, was livid that Pandey’s exclusion from the side, which many believe was a selection howler, wasn’t exactly his doing but had to bear the brunt for it.
“The comment that David made after the match didn’t go down well with those making cricketing decisions. In any case, David and Tom hasn’t had great working relation in terms of selecting the playing XI,” the source in the know of things said.
It is expected that Warner will be dropped from the playing XI and they now have two options. Either to play Jason Roy as an opener or use Jason Holder as an all-rounder and bring in Wriddhiman Saha to open in place of Kedar Jadhav in the middle order.
The main problem with SRH has been their Indian set-up which isn’t sadly up to the mark for a tournament like IPL.
SRH never picked good Indian players and there was always an element of risk when their overseas recruits won’t come good. Warner became the first collateral damage of a poor team selection.