IPL 2020 | Wouldn't put youngsters in middle-order if I didn't find them good enough, insists David Warner

RCB and death bowling generally don't fit in the same sentence but on the back of some brilliant bowling they were able to defend 43 off the final five overs against Sunrisers Hyderabad to start off their campaign with a win for the first time since 2016, when they last made it to the final in the cash-rich league.

SRH captain David Warner might have lost on Monday against RCB in Dubai, but he very well knows that it's a long tournament ahead and such turbulences are routine affairs in IPL. Putting his weight behind the young middle-order of SRH, which has the likes of India's U-19 captain Priyam Garg, all-rounder Vijay Shankar and Abhishek Sharma, the southpaw stated that there were three bizarre dismissals, which isn't something that he has seen before.

Warner was against putting any sort of pressure on team's younger players and advocated that they should play their natural game when they are in the middle. He, however, emphasized the need for seniors to help out the upcoming stars of the game. 

"We wouldn't have put them in the middle order if we didn't feel they weren't good enough. If there is anyone who wants to criticise the middle-order batting, [they have got to remember] it is something I haven't seen before. Three bizarre dismissals [a ramp into the helmet onto the stumps and a run-out after two batsmen collided mid-pitch]," Warner said at the post-match press conference.

 "I have encouraged them to keep playing their way, and not think too much about the scenario or the situation. We got to really rely on our senior players to guide them out in the middle. If it so happens to be two youngsters out there, my message is just to play their natural game. At the end of the day, that is the only way you can learn. It can be difficult at times. You know it is pressure environment, 100 million people watching this. Just got to keep it calm, keep it simple for them," 

Warner, meanwhile, also gave an update on Kane Williamson and revealed that the former SRH skipper had to sit out after hurting his quad in training. RCB fielded Mitchell Marsh as their fourth overseas player and the Australian, too, sustained an untimely injury during the RCB encounter.

“Kane Williamson is not fit, he hurt his quad (quadriceps) while training the other day and (with) Mohammad Nabi. We felt playing two spinners here. Given the thought process, we wanted to chase which probably was not an option if we got stuck the other way, so we went with bowling all-rounder hitting the wicket as hard as we could," revealed the SRH skipper.

After restricting RCB to 163 runs, SRH failed to ace the chase, losing the game by 10 runs, with Yuzvendra Chahal starring for the Reds with figures of 3/18.