David Warner, the Aussie opener is one of the legends of the game and is an integral part of the Indian Premier League (IPL) history. He has done very well in the marquee tournament over the years and created an impact with his game for his teams.
David Warner’s IPL career beginning
David Warner started his IPL career with the Delhi-based franchise Delhi Daredevils (DD) in 2009. He played for the franchise for 5 years (from 2009 to 2013). In 2014, Sunrisers Hyderabad signed him, and he played for them till 2021.
Before the IPL 2022 auction, SRH released him and he again went to the Delhi-based franchise, Delhi Capitals (DC). He is currently playing for DC and leading the side as well in the absence of the regular skipper Rishabh Pant.
But his best IPL stint was with the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) franchise. David Warner played for SRH for seven years (from 2014 to 2021, with the exception of 2018), scoring a lot of runs and helping them to victories.
David Warner won the only title for SRH
He was the captain of the team who won the title in 2016. The left-hander was playing like a beast in that tournament and ended with the 2nd highest run scorer after Virat Kohli. David Warner was carrying his team in the batting department that season. SRH won that tournament by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in the high scoring final.
David Warner is the first batsman from outside of India to be listed among the top four run scorers in IPL history. He has scored 6039 runs at an average of 42.23 and an outstanding strike rate of almost 140.
David Warner has scored 57 fifties and 4 hundred in the tournament till now with the highest score of 126.
David Warner and SRH (Sunrisers Hyderabad) story
The SRH team selected David Warner for INR 5.50 crore at the IPL 2014 auction. Since then, he played 107 games for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and scored 4014 runs. The only trophy SRH won in the IPL was in his captaincy in 2016.
But after playing for so many years for SRH and doing well, there was a time that came in his IPL career in 2021 when he was sacked from the captaincy in the middle of the tournament.
The team dropped David Warner after the first six games of the IPL 2021, based only on a few subpar performances.
In the first 6 games, SRH lost 5 games in David Warner’s captaincy.
SRH finished last in the points table with just 3 wins in 14 games. David Warner was struggling in that season. He only scored 195 runs in 8 games with an average of 24.37 and at a strike rate of 107.73.
What he said-
Talking to the renowned journalist Boria Majumdar, Warner said- “If you are going to drop a captain and then not pick him in the team after what he has done, what message does that send to the young kids in the team? What message does that send to the rest of the group? What hurt me the most is that the other guys are now thinking, ‘Oh, this could happen to me’.”
“At the end of the day, whatever happens, cop it on the chin. If you want to have those conversations, just have them. It’s not hard. Don’t shy away from them. I am not going to bite. I am going to sit here and accept that for what it is because you are not picking me in the team,” he further added.
David Warner made the franchise regret their decision
The Aussie opener showed his class in the same year’s ICC T20 World Cup in UAE and scored 2nd highest run in the tournament and 1st for his team. In that tournament, he scored 289 runs at an average of 48.17 and at a strike rate of 146.70. His contribution was huge in that World Cup win and he scored runs in the final as well.
Now, SRH is thinking about their decision, and they will regret leaving a player like David Warner. Despite being the second-highest run scorer in the IPL 2023 so far, he is currently having trouble getting into a groove. He has scored 158 runs in 3 games but his strike rate is only 117. The left-hander has not given proper starts to the team as he used to do. But we know how good a player he is. He will soon find his mojo and we will see a lot of fireworks from him.
