Sunrisers Hyderabad: The Rift with Warner and Rashid Khan - What Went Wrong?

(Rashid Khan and David Warner at Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL)

In the Indian Premier League, we have always been around some of the finest talents that produce the best matches along with having big moments in the matches played. And a team who has been silently doing their job over the years is Sunrisers Hyderabad which has made things happen on the field well. The winners of the 2016 IPL season, Sunrisers Hyderabad was a consistent side till 2020 because of made it to the playoffs for straight 5 seasons and made their name as a top side in the Indian Premier League. But what happened in the 2021 season completely changed the dynamics of the team and with the Mega Auction coming up, the team had to let go of some of their top players. But what’s the whole story behind it?

Sunrisers Hyderabad between 2016-2020 season

In the 2015 IPL season, Sunrisers Hyderabad failed to secure a playoffs spot because of a loss against Royal Challengers Bangalore when David Warner stepped on the boundary rope while taking a catch of Virat Kohli and at that time, he tweeted that he would make sure that Sunrisers Hyderabad takes the trophy home in the next season. And with 848 runs to his name along with captaincy, he got the trophy home by beating Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Finals by 8 runs. This cemented his legacy as one of the best players in the IPL for the Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Coming to the 2017 IPL season, the players of the Sunrisers Hyderabad, David Warner, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kane Williamson and many more were joined by Rashid Khan who was a young leg spinner and went on to become the finest all-rounders in the cricketing world. His mystery bowling was always tough to pick for the batters and hence he came in handy for the team during the 2017 IPL season. However, the team failed to defend their title in that season but they formed a crucial group for the next season.

(Sunrisers Hyderabad after winning the 2016 IPL Finals against RCB)

For the 2018 IPL season, Sunrisers Hyderabad faced a major setback as their captain David Warner was banned because of being involved in the Ball-Tampering scandal that took place in South Africa and hence the team announced that Kane Williamson will be captaining the team for this season. Throughout the season, the team managed to defend low totals and made their way to the Finals because of players like Rashid Khan, Kane Williamson, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan and others. In the Finals, the team lost to Chennai Super Kings and hence it was a heartbreak for them.

Coming to the 2019 IPL season, David Warner made his way back to the team and in the auction, the team bought Jonny Bairstow who became the opening partner of David Warner and both the players were amazing at the top. The team again managed to make it to the Playoffs as the players like David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan, Kane Williamson, and others allowed the team to be at the top of their game in that season. However, they were knocked out by the Delhi Capitals in the Eliminator match of the season.

(Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and David Warner in a frame)

During the 2020 IPL season, the world was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic which shifted the entire IPL in the window of September-October and hence the Sunrisers Hyderabad players started their campaign well. David Warner, Jonny Bairstow, Rashid Khan, and Kane Williamson were the top 4 players for the team who managed to get the team through the tough times and they were through to the Playoffs. However, again a loss against Delhi Capitals in the Qualifier 2 meant that their season was over and it was the last time Sunrisers Hyderabad managed to reach the Playoffs.

Sunrisers Hyderabad's Disastrous Campaign: A Recap of the 2021 IPL Season

Just like the 2020 IPL Season, the 2021 IPL season was again hit by the Covid-19 pandemic second wave and the first half of the IPL was conducted in the regular window itself while the second half was done in the window of September-October. Sunrisers Hyderabad started off poorly in the first half as they managed to win only 1 game out of the 5 played by them and with David Warner back as the captain, he wasn’t able to score runs well too which led to a major setback for the team.

With a loss against Chennai Super Kings in the league match, the Sunrisers Hyderabad management finally decided to take away the captaincy from David Warner and gave it back to Kane Williamson which came as a major shock for the fans of the team. Besides this, the management also indicated that there will be a change in the overseas combination of the players which means that David Warner will be dropped for the team in the upcoming match against Rajasthan Royals.

https://x.com/SunRisers/status/1388429789250211843

This led to a lot of backlash for the Sunrisers Hyderabad management as they dropped their best overseas batter who gave them glory and even got them their first IPL title. In the next match against the Rajasthan Royals, Sunrisers Hyderabad lost badly under the captaincy of Kane Williamson, and David Warner was seen serving drinks to the players during the match which made the things worse for the team out there. After the end of this match, the IPL was halted mid-season because of the bio-bubbles being breached and hence the rest of the season was shifted to September- October.

When the IPL resumed again for the second half, David Warner was brought back into the playing XI of the team but the string of low scores continued and he was again dropped from the Playing XI just after the two matches played. In his place, Jason Roy was given a spot in the team and in the matches, he did well for the team out there. Furthermore, there were reports that David Warner wasn’t even allowed to travel with the team during their matches and hence used to rest in his Hotel’s room.

(David Warner cheering for the SRH team during their IPL matches)

Besides all this, David Warner was even seen cheering for the Sunrisers Hyderabad from the stands during their IPL matches of the season. This was a sad moment for the fans who watched David Warner carrying this franchise and in the end, he was made the scapegoat for the poor performance of the franchise in the 2021 IPL season.

David Warner and Rashid Khan being released after the 2021 IPL season

With the end of the 2021 IPL season, a disappointing Sunrisers Hyderabad management had to take some tough decisions after their team ended at the 10th position with just 3 wins out of the 14 matches played. For the Mega Auction 2022, the Sunrisers Hyderabad had to give the names of the players who would be retained by the team and this is where the management dropped a bomb as they released some of their top players like David Warner, Rashid Khan, Jonny Bairstow, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and many more. They went on to retain Kane Williamson, Abdul Samad, and Umran Malik for the IPL 2022 season.

For the Sunrisers Hyderabad, David Warner was a perfect player as he played from 2014 to 2021 wearing Orange Jersey and managed to score 4014 runs from the 95 innings played along with having an average of 49.55 and a strike rate of 142.59. When he was released from the team, he went to Delhi Capitals in the auction and he said:

(David Warner was disappointed after being dropped from the SRH team)

“If you are going to drop a captain and then not pick him in the team after what he has done, what message does that send to the young kids in the team? What message does that send to the rest of the group? What hurt me the most is that the other guys are now thinking, 'Oh, this could happen to me'. Whatever happens, happens. At the end of the day, whatever happens, cop it cop it on the chin. If you want to have those conversations, just have them.

It's not hard. Don't shy away from them. I am not going to bite. I am going to sit here and accept that for what it is because you are not picking me in the team. I am passionate about where I play. I will connect in any way I can with the fans because I know how important fans are. Those kids in the playground want to be Sachin (Tendulkar), Virat (Kohli), myself, Kane Williamson, Steve Smith - you name those players, they want to be us. Now we have to connect with them. If they see something like that, it hurts them. That's what hurt me the most.”

Besides this, during the 2020 and 2021 IPL season, Brad Haddin was associated with the Sunrisers Hyderabad as their coach and he made it clear that dropping David Warner wasn’t purely based on the cricketing decisions. Apart from that, there were talks from the management that David Warner wasn’t serious with the team and wasn’t attending the team meetings along with treating the IPL as a vacation. This all led to a different story and in the interview, Haddin said that:

(David Warner during the match against Chennai Super Kings in the IPL 2021)

“I tell you that it was not a cricket decision that he was not playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad. I think the one thing you have to realise with David is that he was not out of form, he was out of match practice. They had a long break; he did not go to Bangladesh or West Indies. But he turned up in a really good headspace. He was hitting the ball well, circumstances were out of our control, even the coaching staff.

But it was not because he was out of form. All he needed was some match time, he was hitting the ball well. He just needed to spend some time in the middle to get the rhythm again. As the tournament went on, you saw his class. He got a bit of rhythm back into his game and he was good to watch.”

Now talking about Rashid Khan, he was an ace all-rounder for the Sunrisers Hyderabad team as he picked 93 wickets from the 76 matches played while maintaining an economy rate of 6.33 for the team. With the end of the 2021 IPL season, Rashid Khan wanted to be the first retention of the side and wanted an amount of INR 16 Crore. However, the team management wanted Kane Williamson to be the first retention so that they could build the team around him and hence it was a complete miscommunication from both the sides.

(Rashid Khan during an IPL match for the Sunrisers Hyderabad)

In an interview, the SRH CEO said that they offered Rashid Khan to be the second retention and he even agreed to it. But somehow he changed his plans and wanted to be in the auction pool so as to get chances in other teams too. He further added that the team always wanted to retain the young leggie, but if the player wants to go into auction, then there is nothing they can do.

“It’s a difficult decision but if a player wants to be in the auction because of the price, we definitely respect the decision. We will try to match him in (terms of) the price and see if we can pick him up in the auction.“

It seems that the atmosphere at the Sunrisers Hyderabad was completely changed when the management decided not to renew the contract of Tom Moody as their head coach. Further, even the former SRH player Mohammad Nabi said that releasing Rashid Khan was not a cricketing decision as he is one of the best players in the game.

(David Warner, Jonny Bairstow and Rashid Khan playing for the Sunrisers Hyderabad)

“When I first came in 2017, we played the best cricket for the next few editions. But I'm clueless as to what happened in the last two editions. The team combination, coaching staff everything changed and the atmosphere was completely opposite. There were players who didn't want to play with them, it was bad. I don't think this should happen with a big franchise, they need to think how to build and not destroy. Rashid was a brand of SRH, so they let him go. When they didn't want Rashid, I don't know what they were planning. They had invested in him so they shouldn't have left him.”

Later for the 2022 season, Kane Williamson was awarded the captaincy while being joined by some other superstars like Nicholas Pooran, Aiden Markram, Marco Jansen and others. But the fate of SRH didn’t change as they finished at the 8th position and won only 6 of their 14 matches in the season with these players.