Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) on Saturday (September 11) dealt with a huge blow as their star batsman Jonny Bairstow pulled out of the second phase of IPL 2021, due to be played in UAE from September 19 to October 15.
Taking to Twitter, SRH confirmed that the England wicketkeeper won't be available for the remainder of IPL 2021 and named West Indies’ Sherfane Rutherford as his replacement.
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“The explosive Caribbean is now a #Riser! Sherfane Rutherford will replace Jonny Bairstow in our squad for the second phase of #IPL2021 #OrangeArmy #OrangeOrNothing,” SRH tweeted.
Rutherford has been part of Delhi Capitals and Mumbai Indians in the past. He has featured in 7 IPL games so far, scoring 73 runs at a strike rate of 135.19.
Jonny Bairstow, however, was a regular feature in the SRH line-up. He was their highest run-scorer in the India leg of the season with 248 runs from 7 games at a strike rate of 141.71.
Apparently, Bairstow wasn’t willing to undergo six days of isolation upon landing in UAE and thus he decided to withdraw his name.
Initially, the plan was a bubble to bubble transfer with Indian and players taking a chartered flight to UAE. But the plan was aborted after cancellation of the fifth Test in Manchester due to COVID-19 scare in the visiting camp.
