Former India opener Gautam Gambhir has lashed out at the demands of a ‘farewell’ for former SunRisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner in their last league game against Mumbai Indians (MI) on Friday. Notably, Warner was dropped from the playing XI twice in IPL 2021 after having continuous poor shows.
In the first phase of IPL 2021 in India, his failure has seen him losing his place in the playing XI as well as the captaincy and Kane Williamson replaced him as well. During the UAE phase, his poor form saw Jason Roy’s inclusion in the team.
While speaking during an interaction with ESPNcricinfo, Gautam Gambhir slammed the idea of farewell, citing even the ‘legends’ of the game didn’t get a farewell match. Gambhir said: “See, a lot of great players didn’t get farewells. We all know that even some legends didn’t, although legend is a big word. I don’t understand this system of farewells. Ultimately, you are playing to win the match. If your best playing XI includes him, then absolutely give him a chance. If not, then absolutely don’t give him a chance. As simple as it gets. SunRisers’ job is to win matches and not give farewells.”
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David Warner has been SRH’s most important batsman since long in the IPL. But this season, the 34-year-old has struggled dearly, scoring only 195 runs from eight matches which came at an average of 24.38.
However, Gautam Gambhir also opened up about the chances of SRH doing well against defending champions MI in Abu Dhabi. He said that SRH can repeat their good show against Rohit Sharma and co. Notably, they are already out of the race for the playoffs this season.
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“If you can ask questions against RCB, you can do the same against Mumbai Indians as well… Bhuvi (Bhuvneshwar Kumar)’s rhythm was much better in the last game. Now Umran Malik is there too, who provides that extra pace, which means the bowling attack is not one-dimensional. Now you have swings, pace and Rashid Khan so they can surely challenge. There was a time when it felt like they couldn’t win against RCB but they did, it’s also possible that they would defeat Mumbai Indians too,” Gambhir concluded.
