Following David Warner’s axing as the captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad and with him not featuring in the XI against Rajasthan Royals, speculations are rife that he may not even play for the franchise again. South African pacer Dale Steyn weighed in on the subject and opined. Steyn feels this is the last time we will see Warner in the SRH jersey and reckons there is a lot happening behind closed doors that fans are not getting to know off.
“I think this will be the last time we see David Warner in an orange army (Sunrisers) shirt. It just seems like there’s definitely something happening behind closed doors that the public are not aware of. It is strange that he’s not still part of the playing XI it would be understandable if they want to change ownership in terms of the captaincy for next season (but) he’s still a phenomenal batter,” he told ESPN.
But Steyn thinks all may not be well in the SRH camp and Warner may have been sacked from the job for questioning some of the team management’s selection decisions this season.
“I don’t know whether David may have questioned some of the decisions they had made. Maybe when Manish Pandey was left out, I heard him say something along the lines of ‘It wasn’t his decision’ Sometimes management don’t appreciate that.”
“The captain of the team also needs to take ownership of this squad and know who is going out onto the field, and sometimes that gets taken out of their hands. I don’t know.
Warner, who led SRH to their maiden IPL title triumph in 2016, might not make it back in the playing XI in the near future as SRH head coach Trevor Bayliss hinted that he may not feature in the upcoming matches as well.
“Difficult decision, big decision but we wanted to try and change the makeup of the team. Try and help our bowlers with a few extra overs from another bowler. We want to stick with the same team, rather than dropping players from one or two matches,” Bayliss said after their defeat against RR in Delhi.
