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Although David Warner is not getting a regular place in the XI in his Indian Premier League franchise SunRisers Hyderabad, Australia's white-ball captain Aaron Finch has backed him to come good in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup. Finch confirmed that Warner will open the batting alongside him for the marquee event, set to commence on October 17.
Notably, not only was Warner unceremoniously sacked as the SRH captain after a string of low scores in the India leg of IPL 2021, he could not even be a part of the Playing XI. Although he returned to play in the competition in UAE, he was yet again overlooked after he got out for scores of 0 and 2 in the first two matches. It is also worth noting that the southpaw hasn't played a T20I since September 2020.
Warner one of the best players ever to play for Australia: Finch
"Yep, absolutely. He’s (Warner) one of the best players to ever play the game for Australia. I’ve got no doubt that his preparation, while he would love to be playing for Hyderabad no doubt, I know that he’s still training away. He’ll be good to go," Finch said at a press conference.
Meanwhile, other than Warner, Finch himself has been away from action after sustaining an injury. While there were doubts over his availability for the warm-up fixtures against New Zealand and India before the T20 World Cup, the 34-year-old is hopeful of recovering completely before these matches.
"Over the last couple of weeks my recovery has progressed really well so it’s looking more and more likely that I’ll be fit and ready to go for them," Finch stated in the same presser.
"And just in terms of the intensity that I’ve been able to train, the amount of accelerations decelerations putting load through my knee, that’s all really positive. So, yeah, I’ve got no issues," he added.
Finch had gone unsold in IPL 2021 Player Auction
It should be noted that while Warner is warming the benches in IPL 2021, Australia limited-overs captain Finch went unsold in the Indian Premier League 2021 player auctions. Finch later admitted that going unsold in the auction wasn't completely unexpected for him as he did not have an impactful run in IPL 2020 with the Royal Challengers Bangalore, managing 268 runs in 12 matches with only one half-century.