SRH stars David Warner and Kane Williamson arrive in Chennai
Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) captain David Warner has arrived in Chennai ahead of the 14th edition of the IPL. Along with Warner, the team's assistant coach Brad Haddin and New Zealand captain Kane Williamson have also joined the SRH set-up in Chennai.
SRH provided an update on David Warner's arrival on their Twitter account, captioning the picture: "The eagles have landed. We repeat, the eagles have landed! Welcoming skipper, Kane and Brad Haddin to Chennai. Letβs go Risers!"
Sunrisers Hyderabad will kickstart their IPL 2021 campaign against the Kolkata Knight Riders on April 11. The David Warner-led side will play their first five games of the season in Chennai at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.
In a setback to the Sunrisers ahead of the new season, Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh pulled out of the tournament, citing bubble fatigue. The Hyderabad team management were quick in their response as they brought in England opener Jason Roy as Marsh's replacement.
Last season, the Sunrisers finished third in the IPL 2020 league table. After enduring a slow start, the Hyderabad-based franchise won four of their last five games to book their place in the playoffs. However, they were eliminated by Delhi Capitals.
David Warner's performance in the last IPL
David Warner has been the backbone of SRH over the years, and last season was no different. The left-hander finished as the third-highest run-getter in last IPL 2020, scoring 548 runs in 16 games. The Australian averaged 39.14 while batting at a strike rate of 134.64. The 34-year-old also registered four fifties.
SRH have once again backed their core group of players in IPL 2021, not making too many changes to their roster. They were also conservative at the auction earlier this year, bringing in only three new faces. Their most expensive buy turned out to be Kedar Jadhav, who was signed at his base price of INR 2 crore.
David Warner led SRH team to the IPL title in 2016. The team has made the playoffs in every IPL campaign since then. The Australian batsman will be keen to go a step further this season and deliver a second IPL title for the franchise.
SRH squad for IPL 2021:
David Warner (C), Kane Williamson, Manish Pandey, Priyam Garg, Virat Singh, Jonny Bairstow, Wriddhiman Saha, Shreevats Goswami, Abdul Samad, Abhishek Sharma, Vijay Shankar, Mohammad Nabi, Mitchell Marsh, Jason Holder, Rashid Khan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, T Natarajan, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul, Basil Thampi, Shahbaz Nadeem, Jagadeesha Suchith, Kedar Jadhav, Mujeeb Ur Rahman.