IPL, where international rivals become teammates: David Warner
Destiny is known to play funny games, and played funny it has with David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan. They were fined for their heated exchanges on field, four months ago during the Commonwealth Bank Test series in Australia played in Adelaide. Ironically now during the ongoing IPL they play not only for the same team but also open for the Sun Risers Hyderabad together.
Their partnership together has been quite a good one with them scoring 30 and 82 runs together in the two matches that they have played till now with a strike rate of 162.
Warner recently said that IPL helps in bringing players together again after their previous heated encounters.
Warner told Hindustan Times, "We have been playing in the league for years. Usually when we play in the IPL, we look back and just have a laugh about our past run-ins."
The Sun Risers Hyderabad captain is known for his aggressive play and is never shy of exchanging words with players. But he is also a firm believer of keeping things restricted on the field and not taking it outside the field.
"I like to restrict such things to the field. But if someone takes it off the field it needs to be addressed."
"The idea is to leave the animosity on the field and not think about it off it.”
"Sledging has become a part and parcel of the game.”
"The intention is to make a player lose his concentration. That's it.”
David Warner is captaining Dhawan in the SRH team just weeks after India’s quite heated tour of Australia and playing them in the World Cup Semi-final as well. Dhawan has also been their previous captain of SRH. This greatly portrays the changing nature of the modern game.
Warner is also captaining KL Rahul, Ishant Sharma and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, who were all a part of the Indian side during their tour of Australia. English players like Ravi Bopara and Eoin Morgan are also in SRH.
The likes of Steve Smith, Shane Watson and James Faulkner are playing for Rajasthan Royals alongside Ajinkya Rahane and Tim Southee. Whereas Glen Maxwell, Mitchell Johnson and Captain George Bailey are now teammates with Indian opener Murali Vijay.
So we see that animosities in international cricket change into friendships, and this can happen only in a tournament like IPL.