There’s nothing we can do with what’s happened with David Warner, says Tom Moody

One of the major consequences that disgraced Australian duo Steven Smith and David Warner had to go through after the whole ‘Sandpapergate’ saga was that they received a 12-month ban from domestic and international cricket from Cricket Australia officials. Huge financial losses aside, this also proved to be a problem for the Rajasthan Royals and the Sunrisers Hyderabad teams who the duo were set to lead in the 2018 edition of the IPL.

However, SRH coach Tom Moody admitted that there was not much that the team could have done to get Warner to be a part of the squad after his ban was sanctioned. Moody added that the team has moved on from the whole issue and is focusing on the upcoming season under the leadership of Kiwi captain Kane Williamson.

“Strategically, Kane’s very, very sound. He reads the game very well. He has played an important role for the Sunrisers over the last couple of years as an assistant even though he was not a noted leader, named vice-captain or anything. He showed his leadership in support to David Warner in the last few years and clearly showed that not only is he a natural leader but he’s someone who’s prepared to step up and stand out when it comes to that. That’s what we want from his leadership this year,” Moody said as reported by Wisden India.

When quizzed about any doubts he had over Williamson’s leadership credentials, Mood replied, “To be honest with you, we have a very well balanced side. We have a number of people who can fill different roles within the team. We’re replacing a good captain in David Warner who was vice-captain of the Australian team with another international captain. From our point of view, we’re not asking anyone to step out of their comfort zone, they’re very familiar with the role of the captain and Kane has had a very successful time as a leader.”

Warner’s agony has opened the door for the last-minute entry of Alex Hales, roped in as the Aussie’s replacement. Moody highlighted the depth in his squad as major positive ahead of this season and he hoped to make optimum use of the options the team possessed over the course of the tournament.

“We always have a divided opinion on any selection but we strongly felt that he’s an international quality impact player available for the whole tournament. He’s a right-hander, so we opt to use him top of the order for left-right combination (alongside Shikhar Dhawan), which is obviously handy to have. And he’s recently dedicated to white-ball cricket. He’s fully committed to develop and grow as a white-ball cricketer and that’s important to us with regards to we can see he’s got a commitment to continue to grow. That’s one of our philosophies as a management group, identifying talent that are prepared to grow as individual cricketers because we obviously as a franchise will grow with them,” Moody added.