Australian David Warner looks to have called time on his IPL season with Sunrisers Hyderabad, after being dropped for the second time this season.
When a fan on Instagram urged him to rest up before a comeback for the last couple of games, Warner replied “unfortunately won’t be again, but please keep supporting.”
Despite starting the season as captain and being a fixture in the team since 2014, Warner was dropped for the second time this season – and it may bring his time with the club to an end.
READ MORE: Ashes twist as England star retires from Tests
READ MORE: Pietersen blasts Australia’s Ashes COVID-19 laws
“Look that certainly has not been discussed,” coach Trevor Bayliss said. “Those decisions will be made further down the line. He has been a great contributor to Hyderabad Sunrisers for a number for a number of years now. He is very well respected with the amount of runs he has scored. I am sure he has got a lot more runs in him yet in the IPL.”
The squad decision was vindicated as Sunrisers won just their second game of the season. Englishman Jason Roy received man of the match for his 60 off 42 balls.
Despite the victory, the team still sit bottom of the league with just two wins from ten games – which coach Trevor Bayliss said factored in to the decision to leave Warner out.
“We can’t make the final so have made a decision that we want the young players to experience not just the matches but time at the ground, around the set-up, and for this match we made the decision,” Bayliss said, while adding that other experienced players were left out of the team as well.
READ MORE: Test discard sends selectors huge Ashes statement
READ MORE: Marsh stakes Ashes recall as young gun fires
“We have a number of young players that haven’t been to the ground. Even as reserves. We wanted to give them an opportunity to come along and experience that. That may continue for a few more games yet. We don’t know.”
https://twitter.com/Cricketracker/status/1442534818214940674
This year, Warner has struggled in arguably his worst-ever IPL campaign.
The 34-year-old has 195 runs across eight innings, with a pedestrian strike rate of 107.73.
Only once in his previous 11 IPL seasons was his strike rate below 120. His high score this season of 57 was also his lowest since his rookie year in 2009.
His average of 24.37 is also his worst since that first season, and is more than 17 runs lower than his career IPL average.
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!