What happened to David Warner: Why is David Warner not playing today’s IPL 2021 match vs Rajasthan Royals?

David Warner not playing: Sunrisers Hyderabad have taken the bold decision of dropping their captain for this match.

During the 28th match of the ongoing 14th season of the Indian Premier League between Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Delhi, Sunrisers Hyderabad captain Kane Williamson has won the toss and chose to field.

“We are going to have a bowl. After a few conversations with guys who have played here, we think it should be a consistent surface. We know that as a group we need to come together and build on the positive parts. It has been difficult, but we need to pull together now.

“This captaincy change is very sudden, so I just need to pick up and make the small adjustments which hopefully will reflect on the result. The goal for the last half of the campaign is to improve our performances,” Williamson told Star Sports at the toss.

Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson remained unperturbed about being asked to bat first in an afternoon match. Samson further laid emphasis on setting a “strong total” at the Arun Jaitley Stadium.

“The last match we played here was a noon game as well and it’s good to set a strong total. You only look for a good start in the powerplay and build up from there. We just want to keep it simple and express ourselves, see the ball and react accordingly,” Samson told Star Sports at the toss.

Why is David Warner not playing vs Rajasthan Royals?

Being asked about the changes made to their Playing XI, Williamson announced three of them as batsman Abdul Samad, all-rounder Mohammad Nabi and pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar have replaced former captain David Warner, all-rounder Jagadeeshan Suchith and pacer Siddarth Kaul.

With Sunrisers giving the reigns to Williamson yesterday, they had also given enough hints of entering the field without Warner. The tried and tested Australian opener has been dropped to accommodate an extra overseas player in Nabi. In six innings this season, Warner’s 193 runs had come at an average and strike rate of 32.16 and 110.28 respectively.

As far as the changes for Rajasthan are concerned, Samson mentioned that they have handed a debut to batsman Anuj Rawat and included Kartik Tyagi for the first time this season. All-rounder Shivam Dube and pacer Jaydev Unadkat have been rested for this match.