Capetown: Former South African pacer Dale Steyn feels that everything is not right in the SRH camp after they sacked their skipper David Warner. Steyn reckons that Warner’s days with Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) may be coming to an end after he was removed as captain and dropped from the team for their match against Rajasthan Royals.
Warner, who is the 5th highest run-scorer in IPL history, the only batsmen to score fifty half-centuries in the tournament and a three-time Orange Cap winner, the most by any player.
He was even the highest run-scorer for the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) side in the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL). He was the skipper when the Orange Army won the title for the first time in 2016.
Sunrisers Hyderabad haven’t had the best season so far. SRH currently at the bottom of the points table with just one win out of 7 matches so far in IPL 2021. But then the Orange Army decided to make a very bold move in not only taking away the team captaincy from Australian batsman Warner but also dropping him from the Playing XI as well ahead of the match between Rajasthan Royals. On Saturday, SRH has appointed Kane Williamson as their skipper.
“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 was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo.
There has been speculation that things might have gone sour in the SRH camp after their Super-Over loss against Delhi Capitals earlier in the tournament. After the match Warner had criticized SRH selectors’ decision to drop Manish Pandey from the XI, terming it as ‘harsh’. Steyn, who played 37 matches for SRH between 2013 to 2015 reckoned that there’s another angle to the entire story that hasn’t been made public. Warner questioning some of the team management’s selection decisions this season might be the reason he was removed as the captain of the side.
“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.” he signed off.
