IPL 2019: David Warner And Steven Smith Unavailable For Entire Season

When everything was set for Steven Smith and David Warner to lead the sides in IPL 2018, a brain-fade Ball-tampering incident took place thus hurting the fans of Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad respectively. The duo was banned from the tournament, subsequently, franchises changed the captains as well.

Meanwhile, the discarded duo set to return to the action on March 29th, the day when IPL 2019 also kicks off. However, they once again come up with the negative news, as they won’t be available for the entire tournament.

Steven Smith and David Warner Might Return Australia on May 1st:

Most Likely, Steven Smith and David Warner will immediately make their way into the international side, after finishing their bans. During the course, Cricket Australia already made it clear that they will not allow contracted players from May 1st.

This certainly means that David Warner and Steven Smith will head back to home in the middle of the tournament. The duo also set to appear in an exhibition match in the first week of May as well.

As far as the captaincy is concerned, Sunrisers Hyderabad might not hand the captaincy to Warner in IPL 2019. Kane Williamson has done exceptionally well in IPL 2018 and also he would be available for the entire tournament.

On the other hand, it would be interesting to see whether Rajasthan ask Steven Smith to lead the side or let Ajinkya Rahane continue. If they feel changing the captaincy in middle of the tournament doesn’t help than certainly, Rahane will look after it.

Both Smith and Warner have been successful captains in the IPL. Warner went on to lead the Sunrisers to win the trophy in 2016 while Smith came very close to winning the trophy but ended up losing by 1 run to Mumbai Indians in IPL 2017 while leading now-defunct Rising Pune Supergiant.