'It's a clear-cut signal' - Irfan Pathan feels it's the beginning of the end for David Warner at SRH

The absence of David Warner from Sunrisers Hyderabad XI on September 27 against Rajasthan took many by surprise. Former India all-rounder Irfan Pathan feels that this is certainly the beginning of the end of Warner, who has been given a clear message by the franchise regarding his future.

Notably, Warner was sacked as the SRH captain earlier this year and was also dropped from the playing XI during the reverse fixture against Rajasthan. He came into the team upon the season resumption, but could only score 0 and 2 in the two games. On Monday, Warner observed the proceedings from his hotel room and also took to his Instagram story to laud his replacement Jason Roy, who ended up winning the Player of the Match for his 42-ball 60.

“Sunrisers are looking for the future, isn’t it? It’s a clear-cut signal to David Warner as well, that we are looking beyond you. It’s a very simple thing,” Pathan said on Star Sports.

“He was the captain – the start of the season. Then, they dropped him from the team and the captaincy. Then they brought him back after the break, and then they again dropped him. That means they are looking ahead.”

“Priyam Garg came in, Abhishek Sharma came in. They just want to try out their best players who might be playing in the future for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Whatever I saw today, quite a few positives for Sunrisers Hyderabad,” he said.

He wasn’t the only experienced player we’d left back at hotel: SRH head coach

After his team’s seven-wicket win, SRH head coach Trevor Bayliss was quizzed about Warner’s absence. “We can’t make the finals, so we made a decision that we want the youngsters to experience not just the matches, but time at the ground and around the set-up,” Bayliss said at the post match press conference.

“We have a number of young players who haven’t even been to the ground, even as reserves, so we wanted to give them opportunity to come and experience a game. And that might continue for a few more games, we’ve got to sit down in a day or two and pick a team and a squad of 18.”Bayliss added.

When interrogated about the future of Warner with the franchise in light of 2022 being a mega-auction year, Bayliss responded: “Look, that certainly hasn’t been discussed. This is the last year before the mega auction, those decisions will be made further down the line. He’s been a great contributor to Hyderabad for a number of years now and he’s very well-respected. And with the number of runs he’s scored, I’m sure he’s got a lot more runs in him in the IPL.”