Sehwag revealed that David Warner was not easy to manage back in IPL 2009.
Virender Sehwag made his debut for India in 1999, and by the time he retired 15 years later in 2014, he had played with a wide range of cricketers. Virender Sehwag was also a force to be reckoned with in the IPL, where he was an icon player for the Delhi side and captain of the then Delhi Daredevils team.
Sehwag, on Cricbuzz, recalled an amusing episode from his time as captain of the Delhi Capitals (then Delhi Daredevils) from IPL 2009, the year when David Warner made his debut in the Indian Player League for the Delhi franchise.
While the current Warner is a very mature and funny guy, he was difficult to control back in the day, and Sehwag and the rest of the management were compelled to send him back home after he was involved in a couple of dressing room incidents.
"I too have vented out my frustrations on a couple of players and David Warner was one of them. Because when he had joined newly, he partied more than believing in practice or playing matches. In the first year, he had a fight with a few players so we sent him back for the last two matches. So sometimes it happens that you keep someone out to teach them a lesson. He was new so it was important to show him that you alone are not important for the team, others are too. There are other players who can play and win the match for the team too. And that's what happened. We kept him out of the team and won as well," Sehwag revealed while speaking on Cricbuzz.
Warner has gone to achieve a lot in the IPL, as he is the fourth highest run-getter in the history of the tournament with 5668 runs in 155 matches, despite missing the IPL 2018 totally. He has 4 centuries and 53 half-centuries to his name and has hit 209 sixes and 551 fours so far.
He led the Sunrisers Hyderabad team to their only IPL title in 2016, but had a falling out after his and the team's poor performance in IPL 2021, and was released from the franchise.
Warner was eventually purchased by Delhi Capitals for only INR 6.5 crores at the IPL 2022 mega auction in February. And the outcome has been an incredible 356 runs from eight matches, including four half-centuries and a fourth-place finish among the tournament's top run-scorers.