Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner was exceptional with his leadership ability and batting in the previous season, where his team went to win their maiden IPL trophy by beating RCB in the final. It is like a déjà vu situation in the opening match of this season where the same opponents will lock horns against each other again. The only difference between then and now is that, this time SRH will take the field as defending champions and they were underdogs in the previous edition.
Meanwhile, Warner's team has a tag of defending champion on which the skipper is very proud. He believes it will motivate the team to do well this year.
"Defending champs. It means a lot. We take a lot of confidence out of last season. We know we have the capability to win the tournament which is fantastic," Warner said.
Hyderabad defeated Bangalore in the final at Bengaluru by a small margin of 8 runs, which again broke the dreams of RCB taste the success. While recalling that match, he said that it was unbelievable that we won in RCB's back yard.
While talking with India Today, he said "To beat RCB in Bengaluru was quite an achievement. In fact, it was hard to believe at first that we were champions. Most importantly, we defended some low totals last year and that gives us belief that we can do that anytime we are faced with a similar challenge."
Despite being the champions, Warner has warned his players to look forward for this season. He also praised the group of local players which includes Yuvraj Singh, Ashish Nehra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shikhar Dhawan etc.
The 30-year-old stated "For us, it's about moving forward and that was last year. It's always hard to go back to back in any tournament so we will take it one game at a time. What is good is that we have pretty much the same line up but have added some good firepower to our squad. The boys and I are very excited."
"The Indians like Yuvraj, Shikhar Dhawan and Bhuvaneshwar are in good form and we know Ashish Nehra is excellent in this format. With Fizz, our bowling unit looks in very good shape and I am sure we will mount a serious challenge this year also," Warner concluded.
SRH will take on RCB on the evening of April 5 at Hyderabad in the opening match of this season.
