Sunrisers all but confirm Warner as captain for IPL 11

Australian opener David Warner is all set to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad for the fourth straight season after taking over the reins from Darren Sammy in 2015.

According to the new rules set in IPL’s Governing Council meeting last month, all 8 franchises can retain 3 players before the auction and use the Right to Match card to match the bid during auctions for two of its players.

The Auction for season 11 is set to take place on January 27 and 28 next year.

With his 16 wickets in 10 matches last season and an even more impressive domestic season behind him, Siddharth Kaul should be the ideal Right to Match for Sunirsers.

Sunrisers might use one of its two Right To Match cards for 19-year-old Rashid Khan.

However, Sunrisers could be in a fix with young Afghan leg spinner Rashid Khan also in the mix. Ever since making his debut in IPL, Rashid has improved in leaps and bounces grabbing eyeballs in T20 leagues like CPL in West Indies and Big Bash in Australia.

Indian opener Shikhar Dhawan should also be an automatic choice for retention keeping in mind his experience and current form in the shorter format.

With 11 wickets in 90 IPL matches, Bhuvneshwar Kumar is almost certain to be retained. He has also won two Purple caps for Sunrisers including last year.

With Warner’s retention almost confirmed, the Hyderabad based franchise will be left with two more player retentions.

In the four seasons that he has played for SRH, Warner has scored more than 500 runs in each of them with a staggering strike rate of 142.13, making him an automatic choice for pre-auction retention.

Warner has been at the front seat for Sunrisers for the last four seasons, emerging as the highest scorer in 2017 and 2015. Sunrisers also won the IPL under his leadership in 2016 and ended up No.3 in last edition.

The official confirmation is still awaited but on Christmas, Sunrisers Hyderabad posted this on their official twitter handle, making it clear that they are all set to retain the Australian.

Australian opener David Warner is all set to lead Sunrisers Hyderabad for the fourth straight season after taking over the reins from Darren Sammy in 2015.

With barely 10 days to go for the deadline of submitting the final retention list, Sunrisers Hyderabad has all but decided their captain for 11th edition of IPL.