'Wasn't the only experienced player we'd left back at hotel' - Trevor Bayliss on David Warner's ambiguous absence

One of the major talking points in the cricketing echelons on September 27 was David Warner’s mysterious and uninformed absence ahead of Sunrisers Hyderabad’s encounter against Rajasthan Royals in Dubai.

Having endured a season of unusually low returns, Warner, one of the league’s most prolific batters, was sacked as SRH captain in the middle of the tournament in April, before also being dropped from the SRH XI, coincidentally during the reverse fixture against Rajasthan before the tournament was postponed.

Warner returned to the team in the resumed edition in the UAE, although the scores of 0 and 2 did little help to his already-unimpressive 2021 IPL tally, which currently reads 195 from eight innings at a dismal strike rate of 107.73.

With such returns, Warner’s absence was deemed by many as being dropped again from the XI. What added more fuel to those speculations was Warner’s reply to an Instagram comment, where he urged for support while admitting he won’t be seen for SRH again, without revealing any further details.

Warner’s future at Sunrisers Hyderabad has not been discussed: Trevor Bayliss

“Unfortunately, won’t be again but keep supporting”, his comment read in response to a user who asked about his absence from the stadium. Before the comment, Warner took to his Instagram story to applaud his replacement Jason Roy, who spring up a Player of the Match performance on SRH debut, a 42-ball 60, which helped his team snap a five-match losing streak with a seven-wicket win over Royals.

“We can’t make the finals, so we made a decision to get the youngsters to experience not just the matches, but time around the ground and around the set-up. And for this match we made a decision…he wasn’t the only experienced player that we’d left back at the hotel,” said SRH head coach Trevor Bayliss while addressing a question on Warner’s absence in a virtual conference.

“We’ve had a number of young players who haven’t even been to the ground, even our reserves, we wanted to give them the opportunity to come along and experience a game. That might continue for a few more games. We don’t know… we’ve got to sit down in a day or two and pick a team and pick a squad of 18. That’s just the way it is. Dave’s obviously watching the game at the hotel and giving his support to the boys. Just like everyone else. We’re all in this together,” he 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.”

Warner, who has 4014 runs for Hyderabad in IPL, led them to their maiden and only triumph in 2016.