David Warner has always been a swift scorer in the powerplay overs (1-6) as far as the Indian T20 League is considered.
The 33-year-old has maintained a powerplay strike-rate of at least 130 in each of the previous five editions of the tournament and when we combine his numbers in this phase of the innings, during this period of five years, his overall strike-rate stands at an attractive figure of 144.7.
Moreover, almost half of his total runs in the 2019 edition of the Indian T20 League -- 331 out of 692 runs -- came in the powerplay itself and that too at a strike-rate of 143.9, which is pretty close to his overall powerplay strike-rate during the last five editions of the tournament once again.
So these numbers tell us how Hyderabad have always relied upon Warner to get them off to quick starts. However, as things stand in the ongoing edition of the T20 League right now, the Australian batsman hasn't quite been able to do what he has been doing so effortlessly over all these years.
His overall numbers -- 175 runs at an average of 35 and strike-rate of 123.23 -- in this season thus far look pretty decent. But when we look at his phase-wise scoring, his struggles to get going at the beginning of the innings are pretty clear.
While Warner has maintained an excellent strike-rate of 138.1 in the middle-overs (7-16), it is his powerplay strike-rate of 111.4 which is pretty concerning this season. In fact, this is his lowest strike-rate in this phase as far as the last six editions of the Indian T20 League is considered.
The last time he recorded a strike-rate lower than this in the powerplay was in the 2013 edition (91.5). And the reasons for his woes this year can be attributed to various facts though.
First of all, Hyderabad have a pretty inexperienced middle-order. So Warner has been trying to take far more responsibility with his batting than what he used to do until last year. Secondly, a lot of Warner's issues against high pace have started coming to the fore since last year. So teams like Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai, all of whom have pacers capable of bowling at 140+ kph, have used that tactic pretty well to keep him quite at the onset of the innings.
However, youngsters like Priyam Garg, Abdul Samad and Abhishek Sharma have proved their mettle as middle-order batsmen with match-winning performances in the last couple of games and that should give Warner a lot of confidence to play his natural game at the top of the order.
It also seemed like he has been working on resolving his technical issues diligently as he played a good hand of 60 off just 44 deliveries in the last match against Mumbai. Even though Hyderabad lost the match, his return to form is a big boost for the side and they will be hoping to see Warner at his best as they lock horns with Punjab in their sixth match of the season on Thursday (October 8).
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