Australia opener David Warner has said that he was hurt after being dropped from the playing XI of SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) for ‘no fault of his own’. He also added that he was sacked from the captaincy “without being given a reason.”
Notably, Warner was not in his best form in the first half of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021. And, the management at first took away the captaincy from him and then he was dropped from the team as well. With Jonny Bairstow unavailable in the second half of the IPL 2021, he returned to the side but failed to keep up the momentum and he was eventually dropped again.
In an interview with Economic Times, Warner said: “When you are dropped from the team you have loved the most for years without any real fault of yours and stripped of captaincy without being given a reason, it hurts.”
“At the same time there are no complaints. The fans in India have always been there for me and it is for them that you play. We play to entertain. We play to push for excellence,” Warner continued.
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He has said that despite being dropped, he continued his training as he knew things would be fine soon for him. Incidentally, David Warner has been associated with SRH since 2014 and started leading the team in 2015. He even led the team to their only IPL title in 2016 as well.
“Whatever may have been the reason for me not finding a spot in an IPL team, I can tell you I was training the hardest I ever did. I didn’t not miss a single day. I was batting extremely well in the nets and it was only a matter of time before it all started to work out. So yes, while it hurt, I knew I will have another opportunity,” Warner said.
However, David Warner found his form during the 2021 T20 World Cup. He finished the tournament as the second-highest run-scorer with 289 runs as Australia won their maiden men’s T20 title as well. He even won the Player of the Tournament award too.
“I tell you what it was not a cricket decision that he was not playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad” – Brad Haddin
Meanwhile, Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) assistant coach Brad Haddin has shared that the decision of dropping him was not related to cricket.
“I tell you what it was not a cricket decision that he was not playing for SunRisers Hyderabad. I think the one thing you have to realise with David is that he was not out of form, he was out of match practice. They had a long break, he did not go to Bangladesh or West Indies. But he turned up in really good headspace. He was hitting the ball well, circumstances were out of our control, even the coaching staff,” said Haddin on the Grade Cricketers Podcast.
“But it was not because he was out of form. All he needed was some match time, he was hitting the ball well. He just needed to spend some time in the middle to get the rhythm again. As the tournament went on, you have seen his class. He got a bit of rhythm back into his game and he was good to watch,” he further revealed.
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