IPL 2020: Reason why SRH dropped Jonny Bairstow from the playing XI against DC

The World Cup hero of England Jonny Bairstow has been plying his trade for Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) in IPL 2020. He has been doing great to keep Hyderabad going and has scored 345 runs in 11 matches he has played so far. SRH’s latest clash was against Delhi Capitals, where they stunned opponents and thumped them by huge 88 runs. It was their must-win outing to keep moving in the 2020 season.

However, Bairstow was dropped from the playing XI for the game, and many were surprised with Wriddhiman Saha replacing him as an opener. SRH’s head coach Trevor Bayliss and captain David Warner have cleared that Bairstow was dropped due to tactical reasons. Saha played a match-winning knock of 87 off 45 and shared a 107-run partnership with Warner to help the team post a massive 219 on the board.

Explaining his stand, Bayliss cleared that they wanted to play an all-rounder in Jason Holder in the middle and Kane Williamson has also been batting well. This was the reason only Bairstow was left to sit out for this match. “Look, we wanted to play the all-rounder in the middle just to give us some more bowling. It gives it another option with five bowlers plus Vijay Shankar. From Jonny’s point of view, that meant one of the top-three batters had to miss out.

“Kane [Williamson] has been batting very well for us when available, and obviously the other overseas is the captain [David Warner] so, Jonny was the odd one out on this occasion. But look, with the way Jonny plays, I’m sure he will play a lot more,” stated Bayliss as quoted by Metro news.

It was a very tough call, says David Warner

After winning the contest by a huge margin, SRH’s NRR improved. They are now in the sixth position in the points table and very much alive in the race to playoffs. For qualifying to the top four, they need to win their rest of the matches. Skipper David Warner also added on why they had to keep Bairstow out. “It was a very tough call, especially with Jonny playing as well as he has. We felt picking Kane would work out,” concluded Warner.