David Warner steps down from Sunrisers Hyderabad captaincy

Bengaluru, March 28: Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday (March 28) announced that David Warner has stepped down as their captain for the upcoming IPL season.

The announcement came in the wake of Cricket Australia's decision to suspend Warner, Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft from international cricket with sanctions against them to be made public soon. CA had on Tuesday (March 27) asked the trio to fly back from South Africa.

Smith had also stepped down from the captaincy of Rajasthan Royals after he was implicated by the ICC for his role in the Cape Town ball tampering scandal.

"In light of recent events, David Warner has stepped down as captain of Sunrisers Hyderabad. The new captain of the team will be announced shortly," said K Shanmugam, CEO, SunRisers Hyderabad.

“In light of recent events, David Warner has stepped down as captain of SunRisers Hyderabad. The new captain of the Team will be announced shortly.” – K.Shanmugam, CEO, SunRisers Hyderabad

— SunRisers Hyderabad (@SunRisers) March 28, 2018

POSSIBLE REPLACEMENTS

Sunrisers have Shikhar Dhawan, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson and Bangladesh captain Shakib al Hasan in their ranks, and it is expected that one of them might take over as new skipper.

HISTORY

On Tuesday night, the CA had narrowed down the guilty to three players - Steve Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft - in the Cape Town ball tampering scandal.

In a press do conducted by its CEO James Sutherland in Johannesburg, CA announced replacements for the aforementioned players - Matt Renshaw, Joe Burns and Glenn Maxwell and they will reach Johannesburg ahead of the fourth Test beginning on Friday.

However, the CA made it clear that coach Darren Lehmann will continue in his post much against the rumours otherwise, while wicketkeeper Tim Paine will lead the side. Sutherland said the quantum of punishment for the troika will be announced soon.

The IPL future of Smith and Warner too looked bleak as indicated by Sutherland. "The IPL NOC could be withdrawn depends on the sanctions. We are yet to make a decision on that but when we make that it will be on the BCCI and the franchise," said Sutherland.