IPL 2021: David Warner posts a cryptic message on his Insta story

David Warner

David Warner missing out from the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) dug out in the last two games of the ongoing second leg of IPL 2021 has been a mystery. Earlier in the season, he was stripped off captaincy and subsequently dropped from the playing XI too. But with Jonny Bairstow pulling out, it was yet another chance for Warner to stake his claim at the top of the order.

However, he couldn’t score many runs in the first two matches of the second leg. This led to the SRH management dropping him for Jason Roy. Many weren’t surprised about the left-hander getting dropped but what stuck everyone’s mind was his absence from the dug out.

Add to it, David Warner, responding to a comment on stay, he won’t be a part of SRH XI anymore which hinted that all is not well between him and the management at the moment. Many had doubts about the same when he was axed from captaincy earlier in the season.

The debate intensified further on Thursday (September 30), when the Australian opener posted a cryptic message on his Instagram story. “It’s not about who is real to you face, it’s about who stays real behind your back,” the message in the story read.

A rare off-season for David Warner

This is the first time David Warner has not been amongst the runs for Sunrisers Hyderabad since he started playing for the franchise. This season he has scored only 195 runs in 8 innings and has been criticised a lot. But his previous seasons in the Orange jersey have been no less than prolific.

Since 2014, the southpaw scored – 528 (2014), 562 (2015), 848 (2016), 641 (2017), 692 (2019) and 548 (2020) – a whopping amount of runs for SRH and was almost every time the highest run-getter of the team. Warner should feel hard done by if he is released by the franchise ahead of the mega auction after just one bad season.